Education · 1 of 4

The path

Get hired, get trained, get signed off module by module.

1. 1

   High school diploma

   Grade 12

   The standard minimum. Math, shop and science help. A driver's licence is expected.

2. 2

   Safety tickets and fitness

   Weeks

   First aid, WHMIS (workplace hazardous materials training), and a medical. Mines test for drugs and alcohol.

3. 3

   Common Core, in Ontario

   About 5 weeks

   Ontario law requires new underground workers to complete the Basic Underground Hard Rock Miner Common Core (Program 770010). NORCAT (a mining training centre in Sudbury) runs it in 5 weeks: 2 days of theory, then practical work in a training mine. Other provinces use company training.

4. 4

   Underground labourer or trainee

   6 to 18 months

   Scaling loose rock, moving supplies, learning the mine. You get signed off on specialty modules one at a time: bolting, drilling, mucking, driving underground trucks.

5. 5

   Production or development miner

   1 to 3 years in

   Running a jumbo drill, a scoop or a bolter on a crew, usually on bonus.