This was my first time at this exciting and rather different kind of event and I wasn’t really sure what to expect! However I soon learnt that the International Mining Games are like the Olympics of the industry. The best teams from across the globe come together to compete against each other in this gruelling event.
Now in its 40th year teams of international students from Brazil, Congo, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, USA and Australia visited Cornwall for this year’s games. Held at the King Edward Mine Museum over 3 days there were also seven teams, both male and female, that entered from Cornwall’s Camborne School of Mines.
During the competition the teams have to heave mine wagons, lay rail tracks and chisel through thick pieces of granite. The events such as ‘jackleg drilling’, ‘mucking’ and ‘track stand’ all put the competitors’ physical strength, speed and endurance to the test. But its not all about brawn, challenges like surveying depend more on knowledge and quick thinking too.
The competition actually began in 1978 to commemorate mining disaster at Sunshine in the US which sadly claimed the lives of 91 workers. The competition aims to not only remind us of those who died at Sunshine but of all those who have lost their lives in mining, a sentiment to which the Cornish can most certainly relate.
The winners will be announcing tomorrow.
Update:
Cornwall’s Camborne School of Mines teams did incredibly well, winning several medals – including the overall men’s event!
The overall winners of the 40th International Mining Games were:
Alumni: Western Australia School of Mines Alumni
Co-ed/Mixed: South Dakota Hammerslagen
Women’s: Missouri Babes in Bibs
Men’s: Camborne School of Mines Sandvik
You find get more details HERE
Congratulations Cornwall!!
Looks fascinating I wish I had known about it because I would’ve loved to have gone
Hmm, maybe we could adopt this for the Cornish Festival, held every two years in Moonta, Kadina and Wallaroo, South Australia – the old copper mining towns where many Cornish miners and their families toiled away back in the day. It’s supposed to be the biggest Cornish Festival outside Cornwall (that’s what their advertising says, anyway). Sorry if I’ve already mentioned this, but I wrote it up at https://arovingiwillgo.wordpress.com/2017/05/30/in-south-australia-i-was-born-heave-away-haul-away/