Work out how to get rock out of the ground safely, cheaply and without wrecking the place, then keep the people underground alive.
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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.
The median pay is about $106,220 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $67,490 at the lower end to about $169,990 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.
$49,000 to $82,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
No. There is no license to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
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
$106,220
Bottom tenth
$67,490
Top tenth
$169,990
The national median is $106,220 a year, the bottom tenth earn $67,490 or less and the top tenth $169,990 or more, in the 2025 survey. The federal wage survey groups this job under the title Mining and Geological Engineers, Including Mining Safety Engineers, so consultants, mine planners and safety engineers are all counted together.
$67,490 to $85,280
The bottom tenth and bottom quarter of mining and geological engineers, 2025
New graduates usually start in this part of the range, though the survey publishes no separate starting figure. Site jobs often come with camp accommodation and flights.
$85,280 to $136,590
Half of all mining and geological engineers earn between these two figures, 2025
Remote mines often run rotations, such as two weeks on and two weeks off. Travel, food and accommodation are normally provided during a rotation, so a lot of the salary stays in your pocket. The tradeoff is that half your year is spent somewhere you did not choose to live.
Roughly, all in
$49,000 to $82,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
Both ends are a four year engineering degree at a public university at in-state rates, at about $12,000 a year at the low end and $20,000 at the high end, plus a required summer field session that sometimes carries a camp and travel fee. The Fundamentals of Engineering exam is $225 in your final year, and the Principles and Practice of Engineering exam costs a few hundred dollars more years later when you sit for licensure. Mining is a small field with active recruiting, so departments and industry associations hand out scholarships that bigger engineering majors do not have. Paid summer work at mines is common from year two, and together those two things often cut the real figure below the low end here.
Fill in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid every year. Mining is a small field with active recruiting, so departments and industry associations hand out scholarships that larger engineering majors do not have, and paid summer internships at mines are common from year two.
Camp and travel covered
Rotational site jobs pay for flights, accommodation and food while you are on shift.
Bonus schemes
Production and safety bonuses are common at operating mines.
Retirement matching and health coverage
Standard at the large mining companies, which are mostly big employers.
International work
The degree is recognized worldwide and mining companies move engineers between countries.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
An accredited engineering degree, then experience, then a license if you want to sign off on work.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Calculus, physics and chemistry. Geology if your school offers it, but the math matters more.
Bachelor's degree in mining engineering
4 years
Four years at a program accredited by ABET (the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology). Only a small number of schools offer it, including Colorado School of Mines, Virginia Tech, the University of Arizona and Penn State.
Field session and internships
Summers
Most programs put you underground in a real mine as part of the degree, and summer internships at operating mines are close to standard.
Fundamentals of Engineering exam
Final year
Sit it in your final year while the theory is fresh. Passing makes you an engineer in training.
Four years of supervised experience
About 4 years
Working under licensed engineers on real projects. This is the part nobody can shortcut.
Principles and Practice of Engineering exam
After the experience
There is a specific Mining and Mineral Processing version. Pass it, apply to your state board, and you are a licensed Professional Engineer.
Calculus
Every engineering degree assumes it. Arriving without it costs you a year.
Physics
Rock mechanics, ventilation and haulage are all applied physics.
Chemistry
Mineral processing, explosives and water treatment need it.
Computer science
Mine planning software and data analysis run the modern job.
Engineering licenses are issued by each state, not nationally, and the license you want is Professional Engineer. You need it to sign and seal designs, take legal responsibility for a plan, or offer engineering services to the public. Plenty of mining engineers work for years without one under what states call the industrial exemption, but it caps how far you can go. Mine safety is separate and federal: the Mine Safety and Health Administration inspects every mine in the country and enforces the rules in Title 30 of the federal regulations, including required safety training for anyone who works on a mine site.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Ventilation engineering
Keeping air moving in an underground mine is a small specialty that people's lives depend on.
Rock mechanics and ground control
Deciding what will hold up and what will collapse. Rare, technical and in demand.
Blasting and explosives engineering
Requires separate permits and training in most states.
Mine planning software and resource modeling
The people who build the block model and the schedule decide what the mine is worth.
Paid summer internships
Mining companies recruit heavily from their own interns. Start applying in your first year.
Driver's license and comfort with remote places
The work is where the rock is, which is rarely near a city.
Spanish
A great deal of the industry operates in Latin America, and companies look for engineers who can work there.
Surveying and drone mapping
Measuring what has actually been dug is a daily task and a useful extra skill.
Most mining in the United States is not gold or coal. It is sand, gravel and crushed stone for roads and concrete, and increasingly lithium, copper and rare earth minerals for batteries and grid equipment. Those projects need permitting, water management and community work as much as they need engineering, and engineers who can handle the environmental and regulatory side are the ones companies fight over.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
At a mine, an early shift briefing, then time underground or in the pit looking at what the drawings said and what the rock actually did. Back at the office, updating the plan, checking ventilation and ground support, working out haulage and costs, and answering the geologists and the production crew who both want different things. Safety paperwork is constant and it is not busywork: an inspector can shut the operation down. In a consultancy the same skills are applied to studies and permits, with far fewer boots and far more reports.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Colorado School of Mines was founded in 1874 in Golden, Colorado, and is still a public research university built around earth, energy and materials. Its mining students do a field session in an actual underground mine.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration inspects every mine in the country and has the power to order people out and shut the operation down. Mining safety law in the United States is stricter than almost any other industry.
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 United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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