70th Annual Ontario Mine Rescue Competition
K+S Windsor Salt’s Ojibway Mine Tops in Ontario Mine Rescue Competition
Mine rescue volunteers from K+S Windsor Salt Ojibway Mine celebrated the 70th annual Ontario Mine Rescue Provincial Competition, and the 90th anniversary of Ontario Mine Rescue by donning champions’ gold hard hats in Red Lake.
K+S Windsor Salt Ojibway Mine, was also awarded the John Guthrie (Special Equipment) Award during the closing banquet Friday, June 7. The team won the Southern District mine rescue competition in Goderich in May.
The Windsor Salt mine rescue team consisted of: Captain Adam Schraeder, #2 Al Gernon, #3 Dillon Perry, #4 Joe Schraeder, Vice-captain Phillip Schraeder, #6 Ethan Kirby, Briefing Officer Matt Stefanic.
Jean-Yves Doiron (pictured above in centre), a mine rescue technician with Vale Canada in Sudbury, won the award for top technician. Doiron won the Sudbury District competition in May.
The week long competition was organized by Ontario Mine Rescue (OMR), a part of Workplace Safety North, and hosted by Newmont Goldcorp, Red Lake Gold Mines. Major sponsors are Drager Safety and Newmont Goldcorp.
During this week’s event, eight 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 an underground simulated emergency at Newmont Goldcorp’s Red Lake Gold Mines
Awards presented:
- First overall – K+S Windsor Salt, Ojibway Mine
- Overall runner-up – Newmont Canada, Porcupine Gold Mines
- Technicians –
- 1st Jean-Yves Doiron, Vale Canada –
- 2nd Norm Gannon Jr., Kirkland Lake Gold, Macassa Mine –
- 3rd Steeve Pinel, Alamos Gold, Island Lake Gold Mine Team
- Firefighting – Newmont Goldcorp, Porcupine Gold Mines Team
- First Aid – Glencore, Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations
- John Guthrie Award (Special Equipment) – K+S Windsor Salt, Ojibway Mine
- Theory Exam Award – Newmont Canada, Musselwhite Mine
Competing mine rescue teams included: Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations (Onaping District), Newmont Goldcorp, Musselwhite Mine (Red Lake District), Vale Canada (Sudbury District), North American Palladium, Lac des Iles Mine (Thunder Bay District); Barrick Gold, Hemlo Operations (Algoma District); Newmont Goldcorp, Porcupine Gold Mines (Timmins District); and, Kirkland Lake Gold, Macassa Mine (Kirkland Lake District)
OMR was established in 1929, a year after an underground fire at the Hollinger Mine in Timmins claimed the lives of 39 miners. OMR has evolved from a fire service to full emergency response service for all underground emergencies including fires, explosions, falls of ground and the entrapment of miners.
Provincial competitions have been held since 1950, when the first was held in Timmins. Competitions test teams’ emergency response capabilities, and ensure that mine rescue volunteers across the province are trained to the same high standards.
Mine rescue team members, the backbone of Ontario Mine Rescue, are volunteer mine workers trained by Mine Rescue Officers to respond to all types of mine emergencies.
Under the authority of the Occupational Health and Safety Act and headquartered in Sudbury, OMR staffs, equips and maintains a network of mine rescue stations across the province that ensure mines within a specified geographic area have adequate emergency response capability.
Workplace Safety North provides products and services to promote workplace health and safety in the mining, forestry, and paper, printing and converting industries, as well as workplaces across northern Ontario.
