Mining and Geological Engineers, Including Mining Safety Engineers
A few days ago, some global news agencies published shocking reports about the possibility that most of the minerals found in nature could run out within just a few years. Do you know what that would mean? It would mean that the life known to nearly 8 billion people is about to end. Every sign of civilization, progress, technology, and modern life would disappear. Modern homes, cars, planes, ships, light bulbs, smartphones, computers, factory machines, medical devices, weapons and military equipment — none of it could ever be produced again once minerals run out, because every part in them is made from some metal, whether iron, gold, copper, nickel, manganese, or other various minerals. A device like the smartphone you're holding right now as you read this needs more than 60 raw materials to manufacture. But don't worry, there's good news for you. What we told you in the previous paragraph isn't real, and no news agency has published anything like that — minerals are extremely abundant in nature, and there's no cause for concern about the future of manufacturing the various products in our lives. You'd only need to worry if the search for, exploration of, and extraction of minerals from the earth's surface and underground stopped. So the question here is: who's responsible for the mining operations that extract different minerals? Mining engineers are the ones responsible for this — the mining engineer handles the search for minerals across different geographic sites, designs safe methods and means of extracting them, and chooses the machines and equipment suited to the type of soil where the mining operations will take place, as well as overseeing the construction of the passages and tunnels dug to reach the minerals.
Meet the Writer: Waleed Abo Omiraa
What You'll Actually Do
The core tasks and responsibilities that fill a typical day.
- Inspect mining areas for unsafe structures, equipment, and working conditions.
- Select locations and plan underground or surface mining operations, specifying processes, labor usage, and equipment that will result in safe, economical, and environmentally sound extraction of minerals and ores.
- Examine maps, deposits, drilling locations, or mines to determine the location, size, accessibility, contents, value, and potential profitability of mineral, oil, and gas deposits.
- Prepare schedules, reports, and estimates of the costs involved in developing and operating mines.
- Monitor mine production rates to assess operational effectiveness.
- Design, implement, and monitor the development of mines, facilities, systems, or equipment.
- Select or develop mineral location, extraction, and production methods, based on factors such as safety, cost, and deposit characteristics.
- Prepare technical reports for use by mining, engineering, and management personnel.
- Supervise, train, and evaluate technicians, technologists, survey personnel, engineers, scientists or other mine personnel.