Five students from TU Bergakademie Freiberg return from the USA with two excellent 3rd places in the underground practice scenario and in the overall ranking. From 17 to 21 February 2025, the international Mine Emergency Response Development (MERD) competition took place at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado, and at the Edgar Mine in Idaho Springs.
"The top ranking is all the more remarkable because the participants were able to hold their own in a field of nine teams with their approach in accordance with the German training and deployment guidelines, even in a North American environment and the rules and regulations there," says Professor Helmut Mischo from the Chair of Raw Materials Mining and Special Processes, who accompanied the group to Golden.
The captain of the Freiberg team is student Vincent Klotzsche. He is proud of the group's achievements: "The intensive preparation over the past two years, both within the student working group Grubenwehr and with the intensive support of the professorship and many partners from industry, has paid off. During this time, we have grown together as a team and were therefore able to master the special challenges of the competition here in the USA extremely well."
The two instructors Erik Farys and Louis Schaarschmidt, who themselves successfully participated in previous MERDs during their time as students, are also very satisfied with the performance of the student brigade and are looking forward to training the next generation of brigade members: "The competence and high level of commitment shown by the Freiberg mine rescue team members was also very positively noted by the full-time mine rescue team members, referees and organisers here in the USA and reinforces our determination to also send a student mine rescue team to the next MERD in 2027 and, in close coordination with the AG Grubenwehr, to start training soon."
Immediately after the MERD, the group will take part in the SME Convention in Denver/Colorado, one of the world's largest trade fairs and colloquia in the mining industry, before returning to Freiberg at the end of February.
The team would like to thank all sponsors and supporters who made it possible to take part in the competition.
