Activities of the Irish Mine Rescue Committee 2020-2021

Activities of the Irish Mine Rescue Committee

2020-2021

by Aoife Tallon, Secretary Irish Mine Rescue Committee, Anthony Moran Irish Mine Rescue Committee, and Mike Lowther Chairman Irish Mine Rescue Committee

Activities and events may have been cancelled throughout the pandemic but our Mine Rescue organisations throughout Ireland continue to be prepared to respond in the event of an emergency at one of our member mines.

The focus for the past year has been on in-house training programmes to ensure all Mine Rescue personnel remain trained and certified. Update from our 3 members, Irish Salt Mining & Exploration (ISME), Dalradian and Boliden Tara Mines.

ISME

Irish Salt Mining and Exploration have remained operational during the pandemic. Monthly Mine Rescue training has been ongoing in-house in line with the company’s Covid-19 procedures. Recently, five new recruits successfully passed through their initial Mine Rescue training.

DALRADIAN

In March 2020, in reaction to the pandemic, Dalradian implemented the government advice on working from home. Consequently, their Mine Rescue teams were stood down. After the introduction of new working practices, Mine Rescue was reinstated with updated training regimes and protocols. Recently, all Dalradian team members achieved the MPQC (Mineral Products Qualification Certificate) Level 3 Award in First Aid at Work.

Irish Salt Mining and Exploration Mine Rescue, pictured at the 2019 All Ireland Competition in Kilroot.

BOLIDEN TARA

Also remaining operational during the pandemic, Boliden Tara Mine Rescue adopted new protocols to continue monthly training sessions under Covid-19 procedures. This included enhanced cleaning and sanitising of the Mine Rescue Station and all equipment. Five new volunteers commenced their initial basic training in July 2020. Annual flight refresher training took place in July 2021 with the No. 3 Operations Wing of the Irish Air Corps. With the easing of Covid-19 restrictions it is planned that mutual training sessions can resume in 2022. It may also be possible to return to the days of competition, both in Ireland and beyond. The IMRC continues to promote high standards of mine rescue preparedness in our mines, and looks forward to a growing number of member mines in the coming years.

Boliden Tara Mine Rescue awaiting instruction to prepare to board the AW-139 aircraft.