E-Days at the Colorado School of Mines has gone through many changes over the years, yet as proven on the Saturday of E-Days, Mining Competition is still very much alive. From 11am to 4pm, CSM students were challenged to see if they had what it takes to be crowned the E-Days Ultimate Miner. This year, with over 250 people attending throughout the day, competition was stiff.
The E-Days mining games consist of six key events; hand steeling, hand mucking, spike driving, gold panning, swede sawing, and jackleg drilling. While all of the events are tough, there are three main events that are considered to be the most challenging; hand steeling, hand mucking, and jackleg drilling. In the hand steeling event, competitors use what is called a “single jack” steel and sledgehammer to drill through a concrete block as far as they can in 2 minutes. The hand mucking event involves filling up an ore cart with muck (crushed rock) using a shovel to a specified level, the level being dependent on gender. Finally, the jackleg-drilling event involved using a jackleg to drill one or two holes, dependent upon gender, through solid granite as quickly as possible.
Many of the competitors at the mining competition were not expecting the intensity of the events. As Jordan Oxborrow, a freshman here at CSM stated, “When I came up today, I knew what the different events involved, but it obvious that not everyone did. After most of the stuff, especially the mucking competition, I saw people gasping for air and just plain thankful to be finished.” While many of the events were challenging, due to the help of this year’s main sponsor, Newmont Mining, competitors and attendees were rewarded with Famous Daves Barbeque and a variety of beverages. Overall, this years mining competition was deemed a huge success and had a higher attendance than last year’s event. Sarah Jones, a senior mining engineering student at CSM, was the event’s main coordinator and event planner. When asked about the success of the event, Sarah stated that, “Today has been a great day for everyone. Keeping with the tradition of E-Days, the mining competition is meant to simply be a fun event where everyone on campus is invited to compete and socialize with their fellow students. While there are prizes for the winners of the different events, that’s all that matters.” The winners of Saturday’s Mining Competition and title of Ultimate Miner have not as of yet been announced, but will be announced in days to come.
While the E-Days mining event only occurs once a year, Colorado School of Mines has an active intercollegiate mining competition team that competes every year around the world with fellow engineering schools. For more information on the E-Days mining games or CSM’s mining team, please contact Stephen at sbrudvig@mines.edu.
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