What does a mining engineer actually do all day?

[u/OwlVibesOnly]

The title sounds straightforward enough, but I imagine the work varies a lot between planning, site operations, safety, technical analysis and dealing with unexpected problems. Is it mostly office based work with occasional site visits, or are mining engineers heavily involved in day to day operations?

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[u/ugminer92]

It really depends on your role. Mine planning is one department, Operational readiness will deal with more in-field stuff, Engineering will be a bit of a mix between office and field but more in-office, etc.

Its really hard to define mining engineering without knowing what role are we discussing.

[u/Fun-Faithlessness-48 → u/ugminer92]

For mining field services engineers what do they do? Are they out in the field all day or?

[u/ugminer92 → u/Fun-Faithlessness-48]

Mostly yes, it really depends on the company and their organizational structure. Usually, you would fall under Operational Readiness and would deal with day to day technical issues, paperwork, managing people. I am assuming we are taking into consideration someone who is just entering the industry, so usually field presence is more required. As you grow you will find your path, and see if you want to stay in more in-field/on hand role or move something that is more hybrid or more desk.

[u/dangerousrocks]

Wide range of roles. Site based you usually have drill and blast, planners, ventilation, ground control. If you're site based you should be getting in the field. In field it's often to inspect conditions of work areas for safety and compliance to design. Or working with the mine operations team to address their problems, whatever they may be.

In the office you're usually running excel, an engineering software (Deswik, ventsim, to science, etc.). You're planning and evaluating different options, depending on your role, trying to support safe and effective production. One thing I've noticed in mine engineers vs. other disciplines is there's a lot more economic / financial evaluation. In the end we're trying to mine something at a profit so we'd spend good time estimating and evaluating from a financial standpoint.

If you're not site based you're often looking at stuff that's much longer horizon, so you may only go to site periodically as you don't need day to day updates on information.

There's also a whole other side of managing people or projects. Some mining engineers supervise underground crews. Sometimes they also supervise/manage other engineers. And sometimes they manage a project, which is usually trying to solve a specific problem or build something specific.

[u/rusted_eng]

Build spreadsheets.

I have not seen a problem that cannot be solved without building a spreadsheet.

See, find, create a problem, build a spreadsheet.

If a spreadsheet already exists for a task, then get in and mess around with said spreadsheet until it’s functionally useless.

Then build a new spreadsheet to fix the now new problem.

[u/nopantsdancing]

Redesign things that have already been marked up but take all day to do it when it’s needed for nightshift so that the surveyors get to feel like they’re in an F1 pit crew at 4pm.

I’ve worked largely in underground production but also mine design, project management and people management.

Most of my working day is spent worrying that one of my designs or tasks could result in someone getting hurt or dying and how to make sure I’ve conveyed every single hazard possible in the easiest to understand way.

[u/Global-Ruin-6723]

Drink coffee and trade Pokémon cards

[u/prexton]

Overlook simple shit and ask someone to build it two weeks later with no access to that location.

Ask you to build shit that they know isn't on the drawings and might not work. Then take it down.

Stuff like that

[u/The-Outdoors-Man]

Sit a desk and watch movies, sometimes design useless tools that aren't useful for their intended purpose, attempt to solve problems with paperwork

[u/LapinArctique → u/The-Outdoors-Man]

Are you working in a salt mine buddy?