Mines Rescue Competitions

The Mines (Fire and Safety) Regulations requires each operating mine, having more than 50 people employed, to have a dedicated trained mine rescue team, and a critical element of mine safety is emergency preparedness.petitions now involve teams from mines in Ireland, the UK and occasionally visiting teams from other EU states. Over the years our Senior Mines Inspectors have actively assisted in the adjudication of the competition. In recent years these competitions now involve teams from mines in Ireland, the UK and occasionally visiting teams from other EU states To build and ensure the competence of these rescue teams, the Annual Mines Rescue Competition has been held in Ireland most years since 1978.

Mines Rescue Competitions 2015

The Irish and UK Mines Rescue competition 2015 was hosted and run by Somincor Neves-Corvo mine in Portugal on the 7^th and 9^th of May 2015 as the first  European Metalliferous Mines Rescue Competition.

Because many Irish teams were unable to travel to Portugal, the New Boliden Tara Mines Internal Rescue Competition 2015 was kindly opened to external teams to compete in and was hosted & run at New Boliden Tara Mines on the weekend of 9^th & 10^th October 2015.  The competition which took place over 2 days involved a Search and Rescue response exercise at crusher chamber facility along with a classroom exercise, involving desk top exercises, first aid & a number of problem solving exercises. Extensive arrangements were made to facilitate viewing of the exercises by all 7 competing teams, their trainers, accompanying management and visitors. A comprehensive report of the 2015 Competition held at Tara Mines on 9^th  and 10^th October is available here

Mine Rescue Competition 2014

The All Ireland and UK Mine Rescue Competition 2014 was held at Boulby Mine (Cleveland Potash Ltd.) on the weekend of May 16th-18th 2014. The Irish Mines were well represented by Boliden Tara Mines, The Lisheen Mine and Irish Salt (Northern Ireland). Teams from the UK, Spain and Portugal were also competing. The dedication and commitment of the individual team members, Mine Rescue officers and management to Mine Rescue training at each facility, in parallel with day-to-day operations,is highly commendable. A number of awards were presented at the Mine Rescue Dinner on the Saturday night,

• The Lisheen Mine were awarded "Best Irish Team"
• Lisheen Mine also won the First Aid event and Bench and Oral tests
• Boliden Tara Mines were awarded the "Team Safety"award.

Mine Rescue Competition 2013