Lac du Bonnet, Manitoba, May 31, 2004 — AECL's Mine Rescue Team has won the Manitoba Provincial Mine Rescue Competition held May 28th and 29th at the Tanco Mine near Lac du Bonnet. The Underground Research Laboratory Mine Rescue Team has won the provincial competition three times and placed second on two other occasions in the last ten years.
 

Congratulations go to: Jason Martino-Captain, Shawn Keith-Vice Captain, Glen Karklin, Richard Suski, Des Johnson, Dwayne Onagi-Director of Operations and Kevin Clarke-Technician.

"The high level of mine rescue training and professionalism exhibited by the competing teams made this the closest run competition in the recent history of the event," said Dwayne Onagi.

The URL team competed against five teams from Inco, Hudson's Bay Mining & Smelting, KinRoss and Tanco. The grueling competition was made up of five separate events, a written test, a first aid scenario, a fire fighting exercise, a bench test and an underground rescue scenario.

The event was attended by the Honourable Nancy Allen, Minister of Labour and Immigration for Manitoba and Deputy Minister Jeff Parr.

The team was able to compete against the best mine rescue teams in Manitoba," said Jason Martino, URL Captain. "The competition was an invaluable training experience".

The first place finish has earned the URL team a spot in the regional mine rescue competition to be held in Fernie, British Columbia next year.

Contact:
Ian Dovey
AECL-Media relations
905-823-9040