34th International Mining Games 2012

The International Mining Games will be held in the UK in 2012 for the first time in its 34 year history.   The Games will be hosted by the best mining school in the world, Camborne School of Mines (CSM) in Cornwall.  

Most of the competition will take place here, at King Edward Mine, which was used for teaching mining for almost 100 years - see History/CSM.  

The competition will run between the Saturday 31st March and Sunday 1st of April 2012.  The site will be open 10:00 - 16:00 and there will be free parking for spectators. 

The six events will run continually throughout the day, and there are currently (Feb 2012) entries from 36 teams. The sponsors will be accomodated in a large marquee and there will be food available.      

The museum will also be open free of charge to the public and there will be working demonstrations of the historic equipment in the mill.   The mill, shop, Holman exhibition and museum are all under-cover and we will be running guided tours throughout the day.  

We can accomodate disabled visitors and well behaved dogs are welcome.

Countdown to the Games:  January 2012

CSM (Team GB) hard at work in practice at Holman's test mine

Countdown to the Games:  February 2012

Event preparations at KEM well under way.  The MacSalvors crane arrived on Tuesday 7th Feb and lifted the blocks into place just waiting for the jack-leg drillers! 

Background

The competition was started in 1978 in honour of the 91 miners that died in the Sunshine Mine disaster, USA in 1972, as well as miners that have since died in the line of duty.  The primary aim of the competition is to keep the “old-fashioned” mining techniques alive, many of which were developed in Cornwall. The competition also provides a talent scouting opportunity for many large mining companies.

The games are extremely competitive with teams from mining schools in Australia, America and Canada.  CSM joined the competition in 2006 as 'Team GB' .   There are six games;  jackleg drilling, mucking, track stand, gold panning, hand steeling, surveying. 

For further details see the CSMMG website www.34iimg.com