THUNDER BAY – Mine rescue volunteers from Vale West Mines won the Ontario Mine Rescue competition in Thunder Bay hosted at Fort William Gardens.
The winners were crowned with gold hard hats by the Ontario Mine Rescue for winning the 66th annual Provincial Mine Rescue Competition June 11th and 12th.
The Vale West team consisted of: Captain Kevin Duff, Briefing Officer Paul Aho, Jeff Farquharson, Jim Niesing, Mario Ceccon, Nick Jones, Darren Toner, and Gord Sullivan. The team won the Sudbury District competition in May.
During the week’s event, seven teams from across Ontario, selected in district competitions, were evaluated on their knowledge, firefighting skills, first aid response, use of emergency equipment and decision-making ability under stress in simulated underground emergencies at Fort William Gardens.
Dan Rulli, mine rescue technician for Compass Minerals, Goderich Mine, won the award for top technician. Rulli won the SouthernDistrict competition in May.
In the closing banquet, two mine rescue volunteers: Ghislain Lebel, KGHM International in Sudbury, and Terry Sprowl, Goldcorp Porcupine Gold Mines in Timmins, were honoured for 30 years of service to Ontario Mine Rescue.
During the two-day, three-scenario exercise five-member teams had to find and provide first aid to a miner missing in an underground fire; provide first aid to three casualties in a vehicular incident; and extinguish a fire in a mine vehicle. The first operation was conducted “under oxygen” (using self-contained rebreathing apparatus).
Competing mine rescue teams represented Compass Mineral, Goderich Mine (Southern District); Goldcorp Canada, Red Lake Gold Mine (Red Lake District); Barrick Hemlo (Thunder Bay/Algoma District); Dumas Contracting Ltd. (Timmins District); AuRico Gold (Kirkland Lake District); Glencore Sudbury INO, (Onaping District); and Vale, West Mines (Sudbury District).
Awards presented:
- First overall – Vale West Mines
- Overall runner-up – AuRico Gold
- Team Firefighting – AuRico Gold
- Team First Aid – Barrick Hemlo
- Team Special Equipment – Dumas Contracting Ltd.
- Technicians:
- 1st Dan Rulli, Compass Minerals, Goderich Mine
- 2nd Jason Leclair, Barrick Hemlo
- 3rd Remi Toupin, Primero Mining
This year’s competition was co-hosted by: Goldcorp Canada Red Lake Mines and Musselwhite Mine, and Rubicon Minerals – Phoenix Gold Project. The event was sponsored by: Drager Safety; Technica Mining; Fountain Tire; Zetec; Dumas Contracting Ltd.; DMC Mining Services; Dyno Nobel; Manroc Developments Inc.; Sling Choker Manufacturing Ltd.; MSA; Acklands Grainger; Dynamic Safety International; Levitt Safety; Tetra Tech Canada; and SPI Health and Safety.
