More Occupations in the
Mining Industry

Within the occupations in the mining industry there are also other workers that take care of construction, maintenance, and repair occupations and even though these workers are not directly involved in the extraction course, they do work in and around mines and the mine pits. Most mines have for instance, skilled mechanics are required to fix and keep up the broad diversity of mining machinery that is used on the site; another occupation that mines require of are skilled electricians to check and install electrical wiring. Mechanical and electrical repair work is a very complex job in the case of mining given that machinery and other equipment are now a lot more computerized then they were in the past. Carpenters are in charge of building and maintaining benches, bins, and stoppings which basically turn into barriers that take care of blocking the air flow from going through a mine tunnel.  These workers usually have the need of specialized training to work under the abnormal circumstances that can be seen in mines. Another job that needs to be done in a mine is the excavation occupation. Workers at pits have jobs that are very alike to the jobs that miners have. There workers have to use wedges and jackhammers, rock splitters etc so as to be able to remove pieces of rock from a bigger size rock or mass. Dredge operators and dipper tender work power driven dredges or dipper sticks of dredges and are in charge of mining the sand, gravel, and additional materials from under the surfaces of lakes, rivers, and streams. Dragline operators are also in charge of using power driven cranes with dragline buckets so as to excavate or move sand, gravel, and other materials.

Another function that is carried out in a mining operation is the processing of the plants which are usually located close to the mines or pits. In these plants, rocks and other impurities are removed from the ore, and then the ore goes to get washed, crushed, sized or blended depending on what the buyer requires. Methods for actually sorting out the ore from the material that is around it in addition consists of a more complicated course of action, for instance leaching, mixing the ore with chemical solutions or additional liquids in order to divide the materials. Almost all of the processing plants are very mechanized and only have the need a few workers for the washing, separating, and crushing operations that need to get done. Processing plant supervisors are in charge of overlooking all the operations that are taking place. In plants that are not extremely mechanized, there are what are known as wash box attendants that take care of operating equipment that sizes and separates the impurities from ore, there are also shake care tenders that have the job of monitoring   monitor machinery that cleans and sizes the ore even more and this is done with the use of a vibrating screen. A large amount of the jobs in the processing plant are done over and over and because of this,  highly computerized mechanization, is turning into something more computerized.