Plan and run the mines that dig up Canada's metals and minerals. High pay, remote sites, and an industry that rises and falls with metal prices.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $125,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $77,000 at the lower end to about $240,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
4 to 8 years after high school, on the usual route.
$37,000 to $70,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
Yes. It is a regulated job, so you need a licence or registration before you can work.
Moderate demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$125,000
Lower end
$77,000
Upper end
$240,000
Job Bank's national median is $60 an hour, about $125,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower end ($37.02) and upper end ($115.38) are the bottom and top of the wage range for everyone in the group. Site jobs in the North often add a camp or northern allowance. In a downturn, hiring freezes and layoffs hit fast.
$63.26 an hour
The median in Alberta, about $132,000 a year
Saskatchewan is next at $61.71 and Ontario's median is $57.69. New graduates start as an EIT (engineer-in-training) at a mine site. Co-op and summer students at mine sites are paid, and room and board in camp is usually covered.
Roughly, all in
$37,000 to $70,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
Both ends are the four year engineering degree multiplied out, 9,000 to 17,000 a year, plus the professional practice exam and the licence application, which together stay under 1,000. The professional engineer licence is only granted after roughly four years of supervised work (24 months in Quebec), and the dues of about 500 a year begin then. Mining companies and industry groups fund an unusual number of scholarships because the field struggles to attract students, so the real cost is often below the low end. Co-op work terms are paid, which helps many students cover part of the cost.
Mining companies and industry groups fund a lot of scholarships because the field struggles to attract students. Co-op work terms are paid, which helps with the cost.
Site or northern allowance
Extra pay on top of salary for remote work.
Flights, room and board
Charter flights to site and camp living are paid by the company.
Bonuses
Tied to production targets and metal prices.
Health, dental and a pension or matched savings plan
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Degree, supervised experience, exam, licence. Same as every engineer, with rocks.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Advanced Functions, Calculus, Physics and Chemistry are required for admission. Marks in the 80s at most schools.
Accredited mining engineering degree
4 to 5 years with co-op
A Bachelor of Engineering or Applied Science in mining engineering. Laurentian in Sudbury, Queen's, UBC (University of British Columbia), McGill, Polytechnique Montréal, Laval, Alberta and Dalhousie all have programs. Many students do a general first year and pick mining in second year.
Engineer-in-training
About 4 years (2 in Quebec)
Register with your provincial regulator as an engineer-in-training (EIT). Work under a licensed engineer, usually at a mine site or a consulting firm. Log your experience.
Professional practice exam
During your EIT years
A law and ethics exam. Most people write it in their first or second year of work.
P.Eng (professional engineer) licence
After 4 years (2 in Quebec)
Apply with your experience record and references. Now you can sign mine plans and take legal responsibility for them.
Calculus and Advanced Functions
Required.
Physics
Required.
Chemistry
Required at most schools. Ore processing is chemistry.
Earth science or geography
Optional, but a head start on rocks and minerals.
Only licensed professional engineers can practise engineering or use the title in Canada. Each province has a regulator: Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO), APEGA (Alberta's regulator), Engineers and Geoscientists BC (EGBC). Your P.Eng (professional engineer) licence transfers between provinces with a simple application, which matters because you will probably work in more than one. Mines add their own safety training, such as mine rescue, on site.
Ontario
Laurentian (Sudbury), Queen's (Kingston), Toronto.
Quebec
McGill, Polytechnique Montréal, Laval.
West
UBC (University of British Columbia), Alberta.
Atlantic
Dalhousie (Halifax).
Quebec students reach university after a 2 year CEGEP (public college) diploma, so the mining degree takes about 4 years, and the licence comes from the OIQ (Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec, the Quebec order of engineers) through its own program and exam.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
Take Secondary V math in the Technical and Scientific or the Science sequence, plus Secondary V chemistry and physics. All three are required for the Science DEC (Diploma of College Studies).
Science DEC at a CEGEP
2 years
The 2 year Science program (200.B1). In English at Dawson and the other English colleges. Engineering schools look for its calculus, physics and chemistry courses and your R score (the Quebec college ranking mark).
Bachelor's in mining engineering
4 years
4 years, co-op. In French at Polytechnique Montréal or Université Laval, each with three paid 4 month work terms. In English at McGill, which requires at least 12 months of co-op work.
Become a CPI (candidate to the engineering profession)
Before or right after graduating
Apply to the order once you have 60 university credits or your degree, $180. Joining the program costs $520 plus tax, half price within 6 months of graduating.
24 months of supervised work, then the exam
At least 2 years, at most 5
Work under an engineer you declare to the order. Paid internships done after 60 credits can count. Add 25 to 30 hours of online training ($345) and a multiple choice exam ($285, 60% to pass).
Show French, get the permit
End of the program
A Quebec high school diploma counts, even from an English school. Otherwise you pass the 3 hour exam, at no cost, of the Office québécois de la langue française (the Quebec French language office). Then the order issues your permit.
McGill University, in English
Bachelor of Mining Engineering. A co-op program with at least 12 months of work in mining, energy and related sectors. About 60% of work terms are outside Quebec.
Polytechnique Montréal, in French
Génie des mines (mining engineering), with three paid 4 month internships. One session of courses is shared with McGill, and you can write exams in French or English.
Université Laval, in French
Génie des mines et de la minéralurgie (mining and mineral processing engineering), 120 credits, with three paid 4 month internships.
Starting in Rouyn-Noranda
UQAT (Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue) teaches the first year of the Polytechnique degree in Rouyn-Noranda. You finish the rest at Polytechnique in Montréal.
Starting from a technical DEC (Diploma of College Studies)
Mineral Technology (271.A0) also opens the Polytechnique degree. Graduates of that program at the Cégep de l'Abitibi-Témiscamingue can have up to 19 credits recognized.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Qualified Person status
After 5 years of relevant experience, a licensed engineer can sign the technical reports mining companies must file when they raise money.
Rock mechanics or ventilation specialty
Deep underground mines need both. Few people have them.
Mine rescue and blasting certificates
Usually arranged by the mine. Shows you can handle the underground side.
MBA (master of business administration) or mineral economics
The route to head office, finance or running a company.
A summer job at a mine site
Even as a labourer. Mines hire the students they already know.
Mine planning software
Deswik, Vulcan and Surpac. Schools teach at least one.
A driver's licence and comfort with remote places
French
Quebec is one of the biggest mining provinces in the country.
Not everyone stays at a mine. Many mining engineers move to consulting firms in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal or Sudbury, writing feasibility studies for mines around the world. Others go into mining finance, since Toronto's stock exchange lists more mining companies than any other in the world. Both paths mean city life, travel, and less time underground.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
At an operating mine on a 2-weeks-on, 2-weeks-off rotation: up at 5, safety meeting at 6, then underground or into the pit to check the blast pattern, ground support and haul roads. Afternoons are in the site office planning next week's production and updating the mine plan. Twelve-hour days, then dinner in camp, the gym, and bed. After 14 days, a charter flight home for 14 days off.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
About 40% of the world's public mining companies are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and its venture exchange, more than on any other market. That is why so many mining engineers end up in a downtown Toronto office.
Job Bank counted only about 5,300 mining engineers in Canada in 2023, and only 22% of them were 50 or older.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Engineers first, then the rest of the field. See every career in engineering.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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