If you can’t grow it, you can mine it.” It may surprise you, but other than agricultural products, the raw ingredients for everything else in our modern lives comes from mining; from the minerals in your toothpaste to the plastic case and circuits of your computer, to the metal frame of your automobile and even the road itself, to the salt on your dinner table and the silver chain around your neck.

Mining led to the founding of industrial civilisation. It is the process of extracting minerals like gold, silver, copper, nickel and uranium (metallic), and salt, potash, coal and oil (nonmetallic) that are found naturally in the earth.

Mining engineers locate mines, design pits and underground mines, supervise mining operations and devise methods of transportation to processing plants. Mining engineers also look after the health and safety of employees and the environment.

What do I have to do?

Mining engineers find, extract and prepare minerals for the use of manufacturing industries. They design underground mines, mine shafts and tunnels. They also investigate various methods for transporting minerals to processing plants. They develop new mining equipment and also solve problems related to the pollution of air and water.

Mining is a sophisticated, economically potent industry and a leading developer of new technologies. The scope of a mining engineer’s work includes prospecting for mineral deposits, planning, designing and operating profitable mines, processing and marketing extracted minerals, insuring safe and healthy working conditions, and protecting and restoring land during and after a mining project so that it may be utilised for other purposes.

Mining engineers use technologically advanced equipment, machines, robots and computers every day. They design, plan and test mines using computer simulators before breaking ground. Mining engineers who hold management positions use complex mine scheduling software to plan mining activities once operations are underway. Surface mining operations use larger mobile equipment than any other industry in the world. Mining methods and equipment are also required for the removal of earth and rock outside the mining industry.

What should I study?

You should have completed your Plus Two with physics, chemistry and maths for admission to the undergraduate course. For the postgraduate programme, you should have completed your BTech. The curriculum gives not just a grounding in basic engineering services but also theoretical and practical training in different aspects of mining and metal extraction. You will study mining methods, ore deposit formation, mine safety and ventilation, drilling and blasting, handling of materials, transportation and dynamics, rock mechanics, hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy and geostatistics.

What next?

Mining engineers find openings in mining and other industries involved in the unearthing of precious metals, ores and even oil. Because of the increased demand for mineral resources in today’s global economy, the mining industry has seen a gradual but steady increase in jobs.

You can work for the Mineral Development Corporation and the mining departments of the Union and state governments as well as in the areas of gas, electricity, nuclear fuels and atomic energy. Coal India, Hindustan Zinc Ltd, the Geological Survey of India and the directorate general of mines safety employ mining engineers. The steel plants in Durgapur, Bhilai, Rourkela, Bokaro and Jamshedpur also employ mining engineers.

Each year, a person requires an equivalent of 40,000 pounds of new minerals and energy equal to that produced by 30,000 pounds of coal. With each mineral, comes a different mine site and a different location, giving the mining engineer a very diverse work environment and limitless scope to work anywhere in the world. So if you’re looking for a good salary with opportunities for advancement, then mining engineering could be the right career choice for you.

Where to study

Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad.
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.
Orissa School of Mining Engineering, Keonjhar.
Bengal Engineering College, Howrah.
Banaras Hindu University Institute of Technology, Varanasi.