2013 Central Mine Rescue Contest

Miners competition set for May 16-18
Shoshone News Press
May 10, 2013

For 47 years, miners from across the Silver Valley and as far away as Alaska have come together in May to go head-to-head in Central Mine Rescue's annual competition.

This year's event is set to take place May 16-18 at the base of Silver Mountain in Kellogg.

Central Mine Rescue Director Danny Peterson said the competition will consist of a series of events to test the mine rescue abilities of teams from mines all across the Northwest, Alaska and one from Mexico.

Peterson said nine of the teams competing are full-time members of Central Mine Rescue, which was started in 1923 to coordinate training at mines and maintain consistency in the training.  The nine member teams are from the Lucky Friday Mine, the Galena Mine, the Sunshine Mine, the Buckhorn Mine in Republic, Wash., the Pend Oreille Mine in Medeline, Wash., the Troy Mine in Troy, Mont., the Kensington Mine in Alaska, the Greenscreek Mine in Alaska and the Pogo Mine in Alaska.  The one guest team competing is from the Palmareja Mine in Mexico.

The competition will get started Thursday, May 16, with the written test.

The live competitions will get started Friday, May 17, at 7 a.m. with the field event and the team technician event.

The competition's final day, May 18, should be an interesting one to watch, Peterson said.  The event begins at 7 a.m. with the rope rescue, and the first aid contest concludes the competition.

Peterson said this year's event is registered with the Wounded Warriors Project.  Local businesses made donations to help the Central Mine Rescue give back to the Wounded Warriors.  Additionally, a rifle raffle is being held among the miners and mine management, and all the proceeds from the raffle will go to the Wounded Warriors Project.