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Mining Engineer
Plans and manages the extraction of minerals and metals from the Earth safely and efficiently.
Did you know?
Utah's Bingham Canyon copper mine is over 1.2 km deep and 4 km wide, and astronauts can see it from orbit.
How subjects help
- Geology: Map where valuable ore lies in the rock and plan the safest way to dig it out.
- Chemistry: Separate metals like copper or gold from crushed rock using chemical processes.
- Mathematics: Plan the size and slope of an open pit so its walls won't collapse.
- Physics: Plan fans and airflow that push fresh air deep into underground tunnels.
A famous name
Herbert Hoover: Worked as a mining engineer in Australia and China before becoming US President in 1929.
Try it yourself: Lift a load with a ruler lever
- Tape the 5 coins into a stack and put it on one end of the ruler. This is your load.
- Put the pencil under the ruler near the middle. The pencil is the pivot, called the fulcrum.
- Press down on the other end with one finger and feel how hard you have to push to lift the load.
- Move the pencil closer to the coins, then further away, and press each time. Where was lifting easiest, and where hardest?
Crane arms, digger buckets and many farm and mining machines are levers, and operators and engineers work out where the pivot and the weight go so a machine can lift safely.
Adapted from NOVA (PBS): Lever Loads.
Also try: Clean up a mini oil spill.
Known for it in
Australia, Canada, South Africa, Chile, USA