An Australian team has won global recognition for high-level mine rescue.

The rescue team from Rio Tinto's Kestrel Coal Mine have placed third in the International Mines Rescue competition, pitting the world’s best teams and biggest companies head-to-head to see who saves best.

The Kestrel team earned its honours in the Simulated Body Recovery exercise, part of the week-long competition in Poland.

The events were dominated by Polish teams, with the group from the Central Mines Rescue Station in Bytom standing out in particular. Most exercises were based on Polish mine rescue laws, which all international teams had to learn and adhere to.

Kestral team captain Derrin Powell has told industry press Australian Mining he is proud of the result in a physically and psychologically demanding event.

“It's unbelievable that we've even been able to place in the competition,” Mr Powell said.

The Simulated Body Recovery is an intense test designed to demonstrate the range of risks before, during and after an accident at a longwall operation.

The contest is carried out on a racetrack that represents a typical longwall mining system.

Tasks are completed along the simulated rescue action course include:

  • real activities that rescuers may have to carry out during rescue action - assembling a pipeline, reinforcing roof support by erection of timber props, use of a pyrometer, passing through obstacles and solving engineering problems using calculations related to ventilation or the time necessary to pump out water
  • detecting victims or injured persons, marking their location on the map and evacuating them to an underground fresh air base
  • exploring endangered workings
  • updating maps of the region
  • remedying hazards

Organisers from the Central Mines Rescue Station said it was an honour to have teams compete in the competition from around the world, and take in some Polish culture at the same time.