Page 40 The Red Lake District along with Newmont Goldcorp Red Lake Gold Mines in beautiful Red Lake Ontario were hosts to this years Provincial Mine Rescue Compe titions This event would not be possible without the dedication of the Ontario Mine Rescue staf the 2019 Provincial Competition Planning Committee and the pas sionate people at Newmont Gold corp Red Lake Gold Mines With the support of safe and innovative underground mine operators like Newmont Goldcorp Ontario Mine Rescue can challenge the best teams in the province with re alistic mine emergency response scenarios in their actual place of work Thanks to all the support staf driv ers setup crew helpers and orga nizers involved in the execution of this year s Provincial Competition Special thanks to the competing teams for the tireless work beyond the call of duty to prepare for this Mine Rescue evaluation Win or lose the training you have under taken will be invaluable as you become leaders of Mine Rescue teams during future emergencies Like Ontario Mine Rescue OMR celebrating its 90th anniversary this year mining and mine rescue in Red Lake has a long colourful history Though gold was discovered in the region in the 1890s not until the strike by LB Howey in 1925 did signifcan t developmen t begin to occur and that was hampered initially by the region s isolation Since then however more than two dozen operating mines Howey Hasaga Madsen Arthur White Dickenson Red Lake Campbell Red Lake Cochen our and others have produced more than 28 million ounces of gold making the re gion one of Canada s and the world s most signifcant gold min ing centres The Red Lake camp was origina lly ser viced for a short time by Ontario Mine Rescue from the Geraldton Mine Rescue Station But OMR opened its Red Lake station its ffth in 1948 stafed by Mine Rescue Ofcer MRO Char lie Culbert who served the district until he retired in 1976 A string of MROs followed includ ing Art Russell Jack W allgren Len Kutchaw John Hagan Pete Lefebvre and Markus Uchtenha gen Current MRO Grant Saun ders took on the position in 2004 and is now the district s second longest serving MRO at 15 years Red Lake mine rescue teams have participated in the Provincial Mine Rescue Competition almost as long as there have been com petitions Mine rescuers from Co chenourWillans Gold Mines won the frst Red Lake District competi tion in 1954 District winners were initially pre sented with a plaque for their achievement but it was replaced in 1977 by the current trophy do nated by Safety Supply Co which features gold iron and zinc ore samples from district mines and a fame safety lamp on the top tier fanked on each side by a mine rescuer wearing a BG174 and holding a fame safety lamp In 1964 a CochenourWillans team won the district s frst provin cial competition a feat repeated fve times over the approximate halfcentury since by 1980 UmexThierry Mine 1985 Dickenson Sullivan AW White Mine 1991 Campbell Mine 2001 Campbell Mine and 2017 Goldcorp Musselwhite Mine The UmexThierry Mine team in cluded Linda Bell the frst woman to compete at a provincial compe tition History is not always in the past This spring Red Lake mine rescu er Dave Hay competed as a tech nician extending his Iron Man re cord for 25 consecutive years as a competitor Iron Man Dave Hay s frst Provincial Mine Rescue Competition 1995 Red Lake Mine Rescue Station opened 1948 Red Lake District great hosts to 2019 Provincial Mine Rescue Competitions By W ork Place Safety North Page 38