Western Australia’s Chamber of Minerals and Energy recently held the annual WA Underground Mines Rescue Competition on November 11-13 at KCGM’s Mt Charlotte Mine. 15 teams from the Goldfields and surrounding regions took part in a series of rescue scenarios designed to test teams’ capabilities to deal with potential emergency situations.

MineARC was proud to be a sponsor of this event for the 8th year running. It’s now well recognized inflatable refuge chamber was again a highlight providing a rest area for teams between scenarios!

Teams were tested over the 2 days of competition with a series of realistic scenarios designed to evaluate their knowledge and skills in mine rescue. Fire fighting, first aid, search and rescue, team safety, rope rescue, team skills and theory challenges were all presented to the teams to test their skills.

Victorious this year was the team from Sunrise Dam, AngloGold Ashanti Australia, taking out a massive total of six of the categories including Best Team, Search and Rescue, Breathing Apparatus Skills, Rope Rescue, Team Safety, Overall BA Skills and Best Team Captain. Golden Grove MMG and La Mancha Resources Australia finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.

MineARC Marketing Manager, Ben Johnson, who volunteered as a victim in the scenarios said “MineARC will continue to support events such as this all over Australia as they are a fantastic platform for Mine Rescue Teams to hone their skills and learn better techniques which will always prove invaluable in any emergency situation”.

South Australia is next to host such an event in May 2012 with MineARC attending as the premier sponsor for the 3rd consecutive year.
The MineARC team would like to thank the organizers of the WA Mines Rescue Competition and congratulate all participants for their efforts over the course of the weekend and their continued focus on keeping Australian mines safe for workers.