What about Materials, Minerals & Mining?

Look around you and you’ll see how much depends on mined materials and processing - from metals, plastics, glass, paints, tiles, to concrete and similar products. New materials have led to significant advances in areas such as biomedicine, sport and telecommunications, with developments in glass fibre optics for example enhancing broadband technology.

The process kicks off with the mining industry, which is responsible for the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth; usually (but not always) from an ore body, vein, or seam. Almost every material that cannot be grown from agricultural processes must be mined. In the wider sense it also includes the extraction of oil and gas.

Once these materials have been extracted, the next step is turning them into usable products. Our world is completely dependent upon this process - major commodities like steel and other metals, building materials, and solid fuel materials are completely reliant on the occurrence of natural resources in mineral form and the processes necessary to transformt them into a usable form.

The materials industry is highly innovative, researching anything from nanomaterials to fabrics made from recycled plastic.

Typical Activities

The materials, mining and minerals industries incorporate a great range of roles:

• Undertaking feasibility surveys for extracting raw materials;
• Deciding on the most efficient way of extracting the material or minerals;
• Developing and testing new materials;
• Assessing materials for qualities such as electrical conductivity or durability;
• Selecting the best combination of materials for a specific purpose

Getting in

The materials, mining and minerals industries provide exciting career opportunities across a wide variety of disciplines and skills; including geoscience, geology, mining, mineral processing, metallurgy, as well as civil and chemical engineering.

Minerals and mining careers share similar interests. There are opportunities for Apprenticeships, where you can gain qualifications and, of course, also earn a wage at the same time. Alternatively, you could enter the profession with a degree.

And although mining traditionally had lower entry requirements it has now become increasingly high-tech. The future vision is one of manless mines and remote operating, or even smart equipment that requires no operator.

Typical employers

Employers include private coal mining and quarrying companies, mineral estate owners, along with large corporations and local authorities.

• BAE Systems
• Schlumberger
• FKI
• npower
• Caterpillar
• Aggregate Industries
  

More reading

ProSkills

The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining

The Institute of Engineering and Technology

SEMTA (Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies Alliance)