During August I travelled to the International Mines Rescue Competition in Sudbury Canada to participate as an assessor for the event alongside Steve Dawe and Shaun Dando. Being an assessor underground for the duration unfortunately meant I didn’t have the opportunity to view any other exercises, however I was able to view the nine teams a day for three days go through their underground procedures and I can say with confidence our Queensland teams and procedures are still as good as anything else you’ll see from around the world, (perhaps I’m biased).
A new communication system was also trialled during the competition with the captain using a tablet connected directly to the surface through WiFi. It had mixed results and currently seems suitable only for the metal mines. After completion of the competition, I met in Denver with MSHA to receive an overview of their new communications system for coal mines. This seems to work well but is very labour intensive for the teams.
On my journey home, I had a stop-over at the Edgar experimental mine, 1 hour’s drive from Denver in Colorado and met with Dr. Jürgen Brune, Research Professor for the Colorado School of Mines.
Edgar Mine is an old gold and silver underground mine that is now owned by the Colorado School of Mines and used for all kinds of experiments and testings. It is also used by most underground rescue teams from around the U.S.A for training.
After discussions with Mine Manager Jürgen and the universities mines rescue captain, it appears the mine and university would be very welcoming should we ever wish to use the facility.
I was asked by Mr. Joseph Main, Assistant Secretary U.S department of Labor, to give a presentation on the Inertisation Unit to himself, Deputy Administrator for Coal Mine Safety and Health, Tim Watkins and Bill Francart, Director of Technical Support. They were instrumental in getting the Inertisation Unit to Loveridge some years ago and were looking for an update on our operations. He also asked if I could present to the MSHA managers in Pittsburgh and Denver while I was there and these presentations and following discussions went very well.