Published: October 5, 2022 |

Members of the KGHM Robinson Mine Safety Rescue Team
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A rescue scenario of gigantic proportions concluded the two-day Elko Mine Safety Olympiad that saw 10 mine rescue teams participate in the 35th annual event.

Set up at N.A. Degerstrom, two teams worked under a 40-minute time limit to stabilize injured haul truck drivers in a mock collision.

The scenario was designed by this year’s hosts, Nevada Gold Mine Carlin Complex’s Andre Lantze and Lance Steilman.

Lantze, the Health, Safety and Training manager, said the situation was designed to have them attend to injured drivers and work on their communication skills with management.

“Just to throw them off, we’re also looking at the upward communication, how they communicate outside management. It’s a bigger judging area to make it as close to real life as we can,” Lantze explained.

The Olympiad is not just a competition but an opportunity for training and gathering tips and tricks of the trade, said Steilman, the Underground Health and Safety Manager at Carlin.

“They steal ideas and learn from each other. There’s always takeaways because sometimes a team is doing a bit better or is a bit more efficient,” Steilman said.

The Safety Olympiad started on Sept. 28 at the Elko Convention Center with teams from Nevada, Idaho, and Utah competing in six skill events: rope rescue, confined space, hazmat, fire, medical, and triage.

An alternate team composed of rookies participated, giving them the opportunity to compete and receive valuable experience, Lantze added.

He explained the goal is to give them as much real-life experience as possible. Volunteers serve as crash victims, painted with moulage to represent blood and wounds to the head and body.

The Olympiad’s goal is to provide rescue teams with an optimal experience and prepare them for a call to a crash or incident at work or elsewhere.

“We don’t want incidents or accidents, but if something like this happens I don’t want a person who has never been trained working on my spouse or child,” Lantze said.

“You want them prepared as much as you can to do their best,” Lantze added.

Donald Hamilton, Health and Safety Manager at N.A. Degerstrom, said his company welcomed the opportunity to volunteer their property for the scenario, “to put what they’ve trained for into real-world practice. The guys that are here are your most experienced and dedicated people.”

Hamilton said he has participated in Safety Olympiads for 10 years and seen how teams learned valuable lessons through their experiences of failure and success.

“One of the things we learned was that you never forget all the mistakes you make here. These guys take all that information and knowledge back to the teams, and then they spread it out to the rest of us,” Hamilton said.

“All the mistakes I made — and I made a lot — I never made again,” Hamilton added.

Joseph Riney, vice president of the Nevada Mining Association, watched the second day of competition at N.A. Degerstrom. He praised the Olympiad as “a great opportunity for our mine rescue teams to get out here, test their skills, compete against each other, learn, train and walk away with some valuable experience.”

Rescue teams take their training to every part of their life. “Nine times out of ten, the first responder is a miner traveling to and from work,” Riney said.

“It’s paramount that we have these folks ready to act whenever it’s needed. So the more they can practice those skills, test those skills, the quicker they’re going to respond, the more efficient they’re going to be,” Riney added.

The competition ended with first place going to KGMH Robinson, second place to Thunder Basin Coal Company of Wyoming, third place to Nevada Gold Mines Phoenix, fourth place to Kinross Bald Mountain, and fifth place to Nevada Gold Mines Turquoise Ridge.

Source: Elko Daily Free Press

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