Teams from 10 mines from Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania took part in the Victorian Mine Rescue Competition (VMRC) over the weekend at Mandalay Resources’ Costerfield operations and in Heathcote.
VMRC is a major annual safety training exercise involving simulated rescue scenarios for mine emergency response teams organised by the Minerals Council of Australia (Victoria) and sponsored by Resources Victoria.
Emergency rescue teams from each mine engaged in realistic, high-pressure rescue scenarios that simulated real emergencies, including firefighting, ropes rescue, breathing apparatus, and road crash rescue.
This year’s participants included the Fosterville, Stawell, Cadia Valley and Cowal gold mines, as well as the Cornwall coal mine.
Overall, Agnico Eagle’s Fosterville gold mine, which produced 225,203 ounces of gold in 2024 from its operations 20km from Bendigo, took out the top spot as the overall best emergency response team.
With each team showcasing the best in mine rescue talent over the weekend, MCA Victoria executive director James Sorahan declared the 2025 event to be another major success.
“In one of the largest annual mine safety training exercises in Australia, Fosterville gold mine took out the top honours as best overall emergency rescue team after completing two days of six challenging simulated emergency scenarios,” Sorahan said.
“An important part of the competition is to support inter-agency collaboration across emergency response agencies including Victoria Police, CFA and Ambulance Victoria.”
With marked growth over the last three decades, the VMRC is an important part of Victoria’s mining industry emergency response preparation.
“The competition is a critical part of the mining industry’s efforts to support highly trained rescue personnel now in its 32nd year,” Sorahan said.
“MCA Victoria thanks the numerous volunteers and sponsors that make this mine safety training possible.”
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