Mining Engineer Essay Example for Free

Mining Engineer Essay 1. Introduction Concerning the development of field of study, this paper will elaborate several issues regarding the mining engineer. They include the background of mining engineering, the requirements needed to be mining engineer, earnings for mining engineer professional and many others. 2. Education/Training Mining engineering like other engineering degree requires the mastery of several subjects such as mathematics including trigonometry, geometry calculus, and algebra; general science (physics, chemistry, and biology), and also social and humanities studies, information technology, and some courses in English since jobs in mining usually involve many people from different cultural background and languages (Daub, 2006). The course to obtain bachelor degree in mining engineering usually takes about 4-5 years. While the first two years, students learn about mathematics and genera science, the specialization of mining engineering occurs in the last two years in which students learn about geology, mine management, physical mineralogy and petrology, and explosive engineering. Some universities that provide mining engineering include University of Arizona, University of Utah, and West Virginia University in the U.S (Daub, 2006) and University of Exeter and in the U.K. in the University of Exeter (2007), the undergraduate students will have extensive course in mathematic and physics in order to arm the students with problem solving capability. 3. Job Skills, Talents, and Experience Mining engineering not only requires technical expertise but also physical fitness since jobs in mining engineering involves hiking, working in variety of condition such as daylight, rainy, windy etc (Daub, 2006). Particular jobs in mining engineering involves open-pit or underground mines, construction supervisory, safety issues, equipments operations and maintenance, information processing, to name a few (Sloan Career Cornerstone Center, 2007). Table 1 shows the comparison of several mining engineers in terms of required skills and talents in which each has different required capabilities. Table 1 Comparison of Skills and Talents between Mining Engineers No. Type of Engineers Required Skills/Talents 1 Blasting Engineer ï‚ § Develop blasting schedule and technique to intensify long-term goals in production 2 Sr. Mining Engineer ï‚ § Capable of developing and applying economic models to geological information system 3 Mine Engineer ï‚ § Performing routine activities in the operation and maintenance of mining equipment and systems 4 Senior Project Geologist ï‚ § Capable of designing and operating drilling programs to examine exploration potential in a location Source: (Sacrison Engineering, 2007; Kinross Gold Corporation, 2007) 4. Earnings Salary or earning for mining engineering jobs varies based on experiences, skills, industry, and job types. However, general mining engineers typically earn about $46,000 annually at minimum. However, for engineer who works in coal exploration may earn at least $50,000 per annum (Daub, 2006). Meanwhile, according to 2005 salary survey that conducted by National Association of Colleges and Employers, typically, mining engineers may expect starting salary about $48,643 per annum. Table 2 shows salary distribution in 2004 (Daub, 2006). Table 2 Distribution of Mining Engineer Salary in 2004 Distribution of Engineers 10% 25% 50% 75% 90% Salary $39,700 $50,500 $64,690 $83,050 $103,790 5. Benefits/Health Factors In addition to attractive salary packages for mining engineers, they also receive several allowances such as travel, overtime, and medical allowances that not only cover the engineers but also their family (wife/spouse, children) (Daub, 2006). 6. Employment In the U.S., the employment of mining engineer span from west to east coasts. However, there are concentrations of minerals in several areas such as Northern Michigan and Northern Minnesota for iron, Southwest for copper, and West Virginia for coal exploration (Daub, 2006). The purpose of jobs in mining engineering is to gather natural resources as raw materials for further processed that performed by other companies in order to produce final products or services (Sloan Career Cornerstone Center, 2007). 7. Typical Day There are two general job types for mining engineers: office and on site jobs. For office jobs, the working day is typically from Monday to Friday. However, for on site jobs, they may conduct various working days that differs from one company to another. For example, a company may set rules 2:1 that means 2 month of full time jobs in exploration sites and 1 month for the breaks (Sloan Career Cornerstone Center, 2007). 8. Conclusion Mining engineer is an attractive job since the occupations are often associated with high-wage jobs. However, as a rule, higher jobs mean higher risks. Therefore, we find that the underlying reasons of high-wage jobs for mining engineers are that they face high risk and require special skills. Works Cited Daub, Travis C. â€Å"Mining Engineering.† 2006. Retrieved January 26, 2007 from http://www.graduatingengineer.com/futuredisc/mining.html Kinross Gold Corporation. â€Å"Senior Project Geologist.† 2007. Retrieved January 29, 2007 from http://www.miningusa.com/employ/Kinross/KINROSS12.htm Minova USA Inc. â€Å"Mining Employment – Southwest.† Retrieved January 26, 2007 from http://www.miningusa.com/employ/sw.asp Sacrison Engineering. â€Å"Mining Employment – Southwest.† 2007. Retrieved January 29, 2007 from http://www.miningusa.com/employ/sw.asp Sloan Career Cornerstone Center. â€Å"Mining Engineering Overview.† 2007. Retrieved January 26, 2007 from http://www.careercornerstone.org/pdf/mining/mining.pdf University of Exeter. â€Å"BEng Mining Engineering (UCAS code J110).† 2007. Retrieved January 29, 2007 from http://www.uec.ac.uk/csm/undergraduate-study/mining-engineering/