MineARC Systems has been actively involved in Emergency Response and Rescue Competitions within Australia and Internationally for several years. These events provide a forum for sharing skills and industry-leading operating procedures, not to mention valuable networking opportunities for all those involved.
MineARC prides itself on being at the leading edge of mine-safety innovation and uses its involvement in these events to tap into the active industry to see what is happening on the ground, what our clients need and how we can help them to achieve a safer working environment for their employees.
MineARC continues to support the ongoing training, and development rescue teams are exposed to in these competitions.
2014 – International Mines Rescue Competitions
In 2014 MineARC sponsored three Mine Rescue competitions worldwide; the International Mine Rescue Competition was recently held in Poland, the Western Australian Underground Mine Rescue Competition and the Tasmanian Minerals Emergency Response Competition.
Bytom, Poland, hosted the 2014 biennial International Mines Rescue Competition. This event is held every two years in a different country (2012 was Ukraine, and 2016 will be Germany) and attracts teams from mine Emergency response teams from around the world.
The Central Mines Rescue Station in Byton, which serves the coal-mining district of Lower Silesia in Southern Poland, hosted the 2014 event.
The event was host to 22 international teams, including two Australian teams, Rio Tinto’s Kestrel Mine and Glencore’s Oaky Creek, and five teams from Poland. The event started on Tuesday with teams given access to the equipment and procedures on which they would be tested, with the competition starting in full swing at 7:00 am Wednesday. The safety trials carried on until Friday afternoon, after which there was a competition close and winner’s ceremony.
Congratulations to Poland’s Central Mines Rescue team, who took out first place overall, followed by Slovakia in second place and Australia’s Rio Tino team from Kestrel’s Operations in Queensland, who took home third place.
2016 – Emergency Response Training at the Reno Mine Rescue Competition
In July, MineARC was proud to sponsor the 2016 Metal and Nonmetal National Mine Rescue Contest, held in Reno, Nevada. Playing host to 37 mine rescue teams from 18 states, the competition challenged the skills and tested participants’ knowledge in a mock-underground environment created at the Reno-Sparks Convention Centre. Together and individually, the teams had to be ready to overcome a range of obstacles to rescue trapped, injured or missing miners.
“It’s a great learning experience,” Robert Crommelin, Mine Rescue Coordinator at Klondex Mines, said. “It is fun. It’s exciting. Our teams train for the day they hope never comes to rescue another miner.”
MineARC Systems were onsite to support the teams during the competition. Business Development Manager Scott Sweat was caught on camera with MineARC’s display MineSAFE Narrow Design Refuge Chamber.