The first all-female mine rescue team to compete in an international competition will be recognized in January at the Association for Mineral Exploration (AME) 2019 Celebration of Excellence awards in Vancouver.
Diamonds in the Rough, a team of Canadian female mining industry workers, including one from Snow Lake, will receive the 2019 David Barr Award for providing an invaluable emergency response resource to Canada’s mineral exploration industry. The eight-member team competed at the 11th International Mine Rescue Competition in Ekaterinburg, Russia in September 2018. They were not only the first all-female team to compete in the competition, but also the first women to work in the underground environment in Russia, where women are prohibited from working below the surface.
Manitoba’s member of the team is Snow Lake’s Jodi Brasch, who began working underground for Hudbay as an electrician’s helper in Lalor Mine in 2012, later becoming rock breaker, a “nipper” on a boom truck, a 60-tonne truck driver and then a scoop tram operator. The first woman to work underground for Hudbay in Snow Lake for more than 40 years, Brasch hopes to one day work as an underground miner.
The AME is a mineral exploration and development association based in British Columbia. The Celebration of Excellence awards will be handed out Jan. 22 during the AME Mineral Exploration Roundup Conference.
