End of an era as Mine Rescue moves to a new base at Mount Isa Mines

The Mine Rescue team is moving as part of the progressive relocation of a number of surface assets, infrastructure and personnel to allow for mining of the Black Rock Cave orebody.

Since 1969, Mine Rescue has stood unassumingly at the foot of the R62 headframe, known formerly as K57 (prior to the grid moving from imperial to metric). Prior to that, it was based in and around the P61 general vicinity since Mines Rescue was established in the 1930s at Mount Isa Mines.

Here it has prepared team members to respond to emergency situations − ready and willing to spring into action at a moment’s notice in case of disaster. Their motto is 'Prepared for the worst, giving our best'.

While the R62 shaft will remain in operation throughout the Black Rock Cave project, Mine Rescue will relocate to the Clean-in, Clean-out facility on May Downs Road towards the end of February, remaining at the ready in case of emergency.

Mine Rescue Supervisor, Ron Pippenbacher says this will be the end of an era.

“Being based at R62 for the last 50 years is a really significant milestone,” says Ron.

“There’s so many good memories here and so much history, but for some time we’ve know we have needed to move to make way for mining to progress.”

“Regardless of where we are based, our commitment to safety and emergency response on the mining lease won’t change.”

“Mines Rescue will always play a crucial role in our emergency management approach, providing first responder capabilities to incidents across our operations,” Ron says.

Open to men and women from across any area of the business, Ron actively encourages people to join Mine Rescue to get involved with a highly-skilled team who provide incident response coverage year-round.

“The Mount Isa Mines’ Mine Rescue team are currently recruiting internally for additional squad members,” says Ron.

“We are looking for enthusiastic women and men who work both on the surface and underground who have a good degree of fitness to join us.”

“We have two intake courses a year, and for the first time we’re looking for this program to include an all-female Mines Rescue rookie course,” Ron says.

If you have a desire to help others, are looking to gain professional development or earn extra income − or all three − you should consider joining Mine Rescue.

For further information, please contact Ron Pippenbacher on +61 4744 2333 or Ron Pickering on +61 4744 2525.