The Annual Collegiate Mining Competition was first held in 1979 at the University of Idaho. The competition originated to honour the lives of miners who died in the Sunshine Mine fire disaster, to build cameraderie between minerals students and to preserve old fashioned mining methods.
The competition has since grown to include teams from 15 United States universities, Mexico, Canada, Queensland and Western Australia.
The competition is comprised of seven individual events:
Teams consist of 5 to 6 members and compete in either the open, womens or coed division and Alumni.