Miners gear up for Canadian mine rescue competition
Prairieland Park in Saskatoon will be full of miners this week as they take part in the 48th annual Emergency Response/Mine Rescue Skills Competition 2016 on June 4.
The competition, run by the Saskatchewan Mining Association, will put the miners through their paces, testing their ability to respond to emergency situations within the industry and act quickly to effectively and safely to resolve the situation.
Miners will be tested in six events, Surface Field Event, Proficiency, First Aid, Fire Fighting, Practical Skills, culminating in a Mock Mine event.
The miners will take part in teams and be against the clock as they face a series of possibilities for each event. The surface field event for example, could test them on:
- Gas detection
- Hazardous materials involvement
- Confined spaces
- High angle rescue
- First aid skills
- Fire extinguishment
- Victim entrapment
- Breathing apparatus use
All teams will be judged by an event coordinator appointed by the Emergency Response Sub Committee. The coordinators will prepare the various problems and scenarios for the teams to face and will also select individual judges for each section of the competition to score each team.
Once all teams have been scored through a merit system, the winners will be announced based on their total merits over the whole competition.
Should there be a draw situation, the winners will be the team with the highest merits in the individual field problems in a tie breaker.
The competition will be the culmination of the Saskatchewan Mining Week 2016 programme, a week of talks designed to highlight the mining industry and the benefits to the economy.
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Read the May 2016 issue of Mining Global magazine
