King Edward Mine Museum celebrates Cornwall’s triumph at the 47th International Mining Games

King Edward Mine Museum (KEM) proudly hosted the 47th Intercollegiate International Mining Games (IMG) on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd March 2025.

Hundreds of spectators battled appalling weather conditions to cheer on the 45 teams, comprising six participants each, that took part in this fiercely competitive event, which saw Cornwall’s Camborne School of Mines (CSM) crowned the victors in both the Women’s and Men’s events.

The first day of the IMG was for the women’s and co-ed teams, and despite a strong showing from both Montana and Colorado mining schools, the home CSM Women’s team, who had put in a staggering amount of training over the winter, won the Women’s event overall. Additionally, the quality of their training at CSM made the accuracy of their surveying the outstanding best of the whole competition.

Montana Tech Orphan Girls took second place and Colorado’s Women’s team came third.

The Co-ed competition was also fiercely fought and at the final stage, the leader board was dominated by teams from North America. South Dakota Hammerschlagen 2.0 won this part of the competition and showcased their expertise in the airleg drilling event, which drew the biggest crowds of spectators to watch how far competitors could drill into concrete in three minutes using a Holman 303 drill. South Dakota drilled further than any of the men’s teams – over five metres in three minutes – in an exceptional display that aptly demonstrated how a great deal of practice and good training pays off.

Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Rangers came second and the University of British Columbia took third place.

23 Men’s and Alumni teams faced each other for the same physically demanding challenges on the second day of the competition.

The CSM Men’s team showed their speed, strength and coordination with the best time achieved for the track stand in the whole competition of under four minutes. They also took first prize in the mucking and surveying events in the competition, resulting in them being declared the overall winners of the Men’s event, in an outstanding demonstration of great teamwork, leadership and dedication.

The Western Australia School of Mines’ Wombats Men’s A team showed spectators just how to saw through wood, with their powerful performance of under a minute for five men each to saw through 6” by 6” inch timber, which took them into second place. The Mackay Muckers from Nevada USA came third.

The Alumni event was won by the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology.

Two CSM alumni teams, Anchored by Britannia and Cousin Jacks succeeded in taking second and third places.

Many of the industry sponsors who made this event possible also visited the IMG to spot young talent to recruit for their companies in Cornwall, the wider UK, Australian and North America, and talk to them about career opportunities in the geoscience, geology and mining sectors.

New to this year’s competition were TU Bergakademie Freiberg and Technische Hochschule Georg Agricola from Bochum in Germany, and the team from the University of British Columbia.

“All the early morning starts, aching legs and frozen hands paid off in this fantastic result for Cornwall,” said KEM Trustee, Carol Richards. “We send our warmest congratulations to CSM’s Women’s and Men’s teams who triumphed in the competition as well as the CSM students who worked so hard to organise the event during the past year.

“It was a privilege for King Edward Mine to host this high profile event and welcome competitors and their families from all over the world,” added Carol. “We pay tribute to the scores of KEM volunteers as well as the competitors, supporters, sponsors, organisers and spectators who helped to make the event such a success and joined us in celebrating Cornwall’s prowess at such a prestigious international competition.”

If you would like to volunteer to help at KEM, please visit https://www.kingedwardmine.co.uk/about/volunteering and complete the online form.