It became the first to win both the overall Best Team and Best New Team awards at the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia (CME) Underground Mine Emergency Response Challenge.

Sunrise Dam team captain, Michael Nugus, also won the Best Captain award.

The Sunrise Dam team beat 12 other seven-member rescue teams, most from the Goldfields but some from as far away as the Telfer Mine 250 kilometres east of Marble Bar, in handling a series of underground disaster scenarios.

In May the team from Sunrise Dam also won the CME Surface Mine Emergency Response Challenge.

Starting with a theory exam on Friday, the Challenge moved underground on Saturday and Sunday in the Tindals Decline at Focus Minerals Ltd’s Coolgardie Gold Project.

Organiser, CME mines rescue committee chairman Anthony Finlayson, said teams' performances were marked by adjudicators who came from across Australia.

Categories included fire fighting, team skills, first aid, a rope rescue, breathing apparatus skills and search and rescue.

Mr Finlayson said the search and rescue scenario was “physically challenging” and the “marathon of mine rescue events” because team members had to work in breathing apparatus for up to two hours. The other events, including a “Beaconsfield-style rescue” of miners trapped by a rock fall, took about 45 minutes each to complete, he said.

“The Challenge tests the skills of underground miners in the hope that they are prepared for the real event – just in case, but we hope it never happens,” Mr Finlayson said.

Challenge award winners were:

Best Team: AngloGold Ashanti Sunrise Dam, Barrick Yilgarn 1 2nd, Barrick Yilgarn 2 3rd.

Eastern Region Coordinator’s Challenge: Steve Targett (Mincor Operations).

Fire Fighting: AngloGold Ashanti Sunrise Dam.

First Aid: Barrick Yilgarn 1.

Overall First Aid: Xstrata Nickel Cosmos.

Search and Rescue: AngloGold Ashanti Sunrise Dam.

Rope Rescue: AngloGold Ashanti Sunrise Dam.

Breathing Apparatus Skills: AngloGold Ashanti Sunrise Dam.

Team Skills: KCGM Ratz.

Team Safety: AngloGold Ashanti Sunrise Dam.

Theory: Barrick Yilgarn 2.

Theory Individual: Todd Smoker (Barrick Yilgarn 2).

Best Captain: Michael Nugus (Sunrise Dam).

Best New Captain: Shane Skinner (Xstrata Nickel Cosmos).

Best New Team: AngloGold Ashanti Sunrise Dam.