Rio Tinto's wholly owned Diavik Diamond Mines Inc., which jointly owns the Diavik diamond mine in Canada's Northwest Territories with Harry Winston Diamond Corporation, reports that its rescue team captured top spot in the underground competition at this month's 55th annual Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission's Mine Rescue Competition held in Yellowknife.

In total, the underground competition included seven events of which Diavik won three, according to the miner. Diavik's mine rescue team, which is drawn from the company's larger mine site emergency response team, has won this event's overall underground competition twice in a row.

With the win, the Diavik team now qualifies for the 11th Biennial National Regional Mine Rescue Competition to be held in Fernie, BC in 2013.

The team's next challenge will be in September, when they travel to the Ukraine to compete in the International Mines Rescue Competition. This will be the first time the team competes internationally.

Snap Lake Mine Team

De Beers Canada also reports that the rescue team for its Snap Lake mine in Canada's Northwest Territories won two events at the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission's Mine Rescue Competition.

The Snap Lake Mine team won the underground rope and underground obstacle events at the two-day annual competition. Members of the team are chosen from the mine's emergency response team, which trains year round to deal with any emergencies that may occur on the mine site.

In the three weeks leading up to the competition, the team underwent intensive training, including a day spent at the Yellowknife Airport fire training facility to learn about how to fight fires involving aviation fuel and other situations, reports De Beers Canada.

There were seven teams in the overall competition hailing from Canada's Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut.