Mining and Geological Engineering

Mining and geological engineering focuses primarily on the study and design of creating safe and effective means to extract metals and minerals for industrial, commercial and scientific purposes. Requiring education and understanding not only of mining principles and practices, engineers in this field are also expected to have an advanced and dynamic understanding of geological sciences, such as soil and mineral composition, surveying, prospecting and exploratory geological research. In addition to extracting the more conventional materials such as oil, precious and industrial metals and rarer gems and materials, many new advancements in information technology have expanded the role of geological engineering to search and mine for other materials, such as the dozens of special minerals and materials used in computer, tablet and smart phone construction.

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Working in the field

Employed by governments, major corporations, non-profit organizations and scientific/academic research institutions, geological engineers play pivotal roles in everything from industrial production of materials and energy, to advancing scientific understanding of the material composition of the Earth. Because of the numerous and varied functions for geological engineering and the substantial technological advancements made in the field itself, the role of the engineer in respect to mining and geological research continues to evolve, finding new and interesting applications for the science with each passing year.

The working and academic lives of a mining and geological engineer is one of constant problem solving, exploration, attention to detail and communication. As one of, if not the primary coordinator for digging and mining operations, the engineer is charged with the planning, logistics, safety assurance and contingency/emergency management of their projects. In addition to the technical engineering skills required for the surveying, planning, digging and extraction or study of materials, the project engineers are quite often also required to maintain strong lines of communication with the crews of professional miners or students they are working with. As such, and especially in respect to safety or emergency management, the numbers of women entering the fields has been steadily increasing.

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