Also called: Mine General Manager, Mine Operations Manager
Runs an entire mine or quarry: production targets, budgets, safety and hundreds of workers.
Your morning starts with the overnight production numbers and a safety briefing with every shift boss. By lunch you are underground checking a new section, and by afternoon you are on a call about the price of copper and whether to buy another haul truck. If something goes wrong anywhere on the property, your phone rings.
Estimated from BLS industrial production managers in mining; large metal mines pay more.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Usually a bachelor's in mining engineering or geology plus 10+ years working up through mine operations.
Ways in: 4-year college, On-the-job training. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Mining Engineering, Geological Engineering, Geology.
Growing about average (about 2% over 10 years). Industrial production managers overall.
Low risk for 10 years. AI plans mine schedules and tracks fleets; leading hundreds of workers and owning safety stays a human job.
Classes: Earth science, Business CTE class, Physics.
Official data: O*NET occupation 11-3051.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.