Mine rescue volunteers from Vale West Mines and Glencore Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations were crowned champions by Workplace Safety North and Ontario Mine Rescue as the overall winners of the 2017 Mine Rescue Competitions for Sudbury and Onaping districts, respectively, in Copper Cliff, May 10 - 12.
The Vale West Mines team consisted of Captain Jeff Farquharson, Roch Berthiaume, Nick Cecconi, Aaron Brouse, Mario Ceccon, Dustin Hirschfeld, Chris Charbonneau and Briefing Officer Lorne Beleskey.
The Glencore team consisted of Captain Andrew Jorgensen, Peter Robichaud, Dave Wylie, Pat Robitaille, Rock Carriere, Max Kent, Cory Foucault, and Briefing Officer Paul Leclair.
Four mine rescue teams from across the two districts were evaluated on their firefighting skills, first aid response, use of emergency equipment and decision-making ability under stress in a simulated underground emergency at the McClelland Arena.
Competing mine rescue teams represented Vale West and East Mines in Sudbury District, and Glencore Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations and KGHM in Onaping District.
Simone Hensher, mine rescue technician for Glencore, and Ron Weaver, mine rescue technician for Vale East Mines, each won their district’s award for top technician.
Both winning technicians and mine rescue teams will represent their districts at the 68th annual Ontario Mine Rescue Provincial Competition, June 7 - 9, at Compass Minerals Goderich Mine in Goderich.
They will compete against:
- Kirkland Lake District – Kirkland Lake Gold North Complex
- Red Lake District – Goldcorp Musselwhite Mine
- Southern District – CGC Hagersville Mine
- Thunder Bay/Algoma District – North American Palladium Lac ds Iles Mine
- Timmins – Tahoe Canada
