South Dakota Mines Mine Rescue Team Practices Skills at SURF

South Dakota Mines was one of two university mine rescue teams that recently took part in a competition at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) that was set up to test a range of skills and mimic real-world emergency scenarios underground.

The Mines team competed with the Colorado School of Mines.

“Competitions are a great way for us to test our emergency response skills,” said Molly Smith, a senior geological engineering major. “There are a multitude of factors that go into a well-done emergency response scenario and getting them right is difficult. We hope that the training our members receive will help them in any sort of emergency situation, not just mine disasters. The medical training is especially useful for real life scenarios.”

Trainings like the one at SURF also help the team hone their skills for the Mine Emergency Response Development (MERD) competitions. The Mines team competes against a variety of other collegiate teams including Colorado Mines, the University of Utah, the University of West Virginia, the University of Arizona, Laurentian University and the University of British Columbia in Canada, and the Technical Academy of Freiburg in Germany.

The team’s next competition is in Golden and Idaho Springs, Colo., in February.