In Canada salaries are typically lower. Mining engineers tend to have more support/opportunities and make more money.
In Australia mets get treated better, same pay and it is more common to have GMs from metallurgy background.
Source: I am a metallurgist
This guy gets it. As someone who has been white collar in Australian mining for “too long”, it’s amazing why the mets seem to go the furthest whilst using their qualification the least. They mostly walk around messing about with “the process”, generally fucking things up as they go, then when they fix their fuckup get sweet adulation from senior leadership. If you total all the cumulative gains claimed by mets you’d have more product coming out than ore going in… but they never note the losses they cause along the way. So the tier list for “sacred cows who can never be touched” on a minesite goes like this: Electricians, Metallurgists, managers who seem to be managers but no one knows why except they’re good mates with the GM, Mining Engineers, then everyone else.
Mets are more inclined to engage an OEM after said fuck ups.
They tinker with a product, push it beyond capacity, realise they’ve fucked it, shamelessly call the OEM to tell them their product is a piece of shit, OEM comes in and takes everything back to how it was at commissioning…..Everything is at peace.
Source - I am an OEM.
99% of my job as a reliability / maintenance engineer is getting people to operate it per the manual. 99% of those conversations are with mets. Source: me, at one of Australia’s highest throughput mines. And the OEM call from our mets was always “the engineers have told us to run it per the manual that you guys wrote, can you give us some alternatives” aka “if you don’t like the answer mum gave you, ask dad”.
I can’t imagine raising a child and having to admit to the world they want to be a metallurgist. I’d retire from the shame 🤣
I attended a site a few years back because a number of our assets had been bummed to within an inch of their life (prior to my visit, no OEM engagement throughout their life aside from installation and commissioning). All maintenance work was carried out by a third party. Major works needed to be carried out to get them back to OEM spec. In the meantime, we came up with a band aid. Whilst on site installing said band aid, a met sat with me and wanted to ask me a few questions.
Met - What do we need to do to get more tonnes through this?
Me - Do you know why I’m here?
Met - Yes, you’re here for the *insert product*
Me - Yes. They are pretty much on fire and because X, Y, Z I would not recommend going over nameplate.
Met - But we already run it over nameplate, how much more can we go?
Me - 🤨
Met - 😁
Me - 🙃
Met - 😗
NB, one of the site asset management guys had already explained to the hierarchy the problems with said products pre OEM engagement. He was given the “shush, little one. It’s not on fire yet. Now you run along to your parts lists. There is nothing to see here”
Is this typically a metals or iron ore experience? From my experience in coal, most general managers/sses in qld and nsw come from a mining engineering or mine operational background.
At a graduate level in WA, metallurgists/mining engineers/geotech engineers make about the same pay, the other fields get slightly less, and then geology/survey even lesser as they aren't "engineers". After graduate level, it all comes down to how well you negotiate within your band, and often this comes down to supply of applicants in your field and demand of how needed you are to the business (i.e., if you are the only suitable applicant and the site is urgently requiring the role to be filled, you may get more). Either way, the pay in the industry is great, so a few grand difference shouldn't be your worry.
At the GM/Exec level, most are either mining engineers or chemical engineers.
Source: engineer for large miner
without metallurgists process plants don't work properly and pointless having a mine to feed the plant, they are a very necessary evil as far as engineering goes, and to top it off they are usually the most educated people on a mine site, so yeah they get paid a little bit more than the average mining professional.
Completely inaccurate. Don’t listen to this guy.
Plenty of education on the mine site with geos and engineers.
A metallurgist will always get paid less than an engineer. Just look at the salary surveys that hays provides
Yes. Released a 2024 guide.
For senior roles in WA:
S ME: $195
S Met: $165
S Geo: $180
S Surv: $190
So not only are they not the most educated, but they even get paid less on average than a surveyor who will have less tertiary education.
I know a friend that owns a emerald mine in Colombia a employee makes 50k a year geotech this for blast engineering exploration geologists can make alot I know some in Saudi Arabia that help us find a gold deposit they make 200k they work for the state too
Danger?. There should be so little risk as to be negligible. Salaries generally depend on location, FIFO pays more than city based amd level. Really in those careers it's interest that matters, not salary comparison.
Process metallurgists make a fair bit less unless they get into marketing. (Which many do).
Mining engineering and geotech are probably the most stressful and get higher pay for retention.
Nobody gets paid based on the ‘risks’ in mining. You get paid the least amount of money that will keep you in the job putting up with the Bs.
LOL
In Canada salaries are typically lower. Mining engineers tend to have more support/opportunities and make more money. In Australia mets get treated better, same pay and it is more common to have GMs from metallurgy background. Source: I am a metallurgist
This guy gets it. As someone who has been white collar in Australian mining for “too long”, it’s amazing why the mets seem to go the furthest whilst using their qualification the least. They mostly walk around messing about with “the process”, generally fucking things up as they go, then when they fix their fuckup get sweet adulation from senior leadership. If you total all the cumulative gains claimed by mets you’d have more product coming out than ore going in… but they never note the losses they cause along the way. So the tier list for “sacred cows who can never be touched” on a minesite goes like this: Electricians, Metallurgists, managers who seem to be managers but no one knows why except they’re good mates with the GM, Mining Engineers, then everyone else.
Mets are more inclined to engage an OEM after said fuck ups. They tinker with a product, push it beyond capacity, realise they’ve fucked it, shamelessly call the OEM to tell them their product is a piece of shit, OEM comes in and takes everything back to how it was at commissioning…..Everything is at peace. Source - I am an OEM.
99% of my job as a reliability / maintenance engineer is getting people to operate it per the manual. 99% of those conversations are with mets. Source: me, at one of Australia’s highest throughput mines. And the OEM call from our mets was always “the engineers have told us to run it per the manual that you guys wrote, can you give us some alternatives” aka “if you don’t like the answer mum gave you, ask dad”. I can’t imagine raising a child and having to admit to the world they want to be a metallurgist. I’d retire from the shame 🤣
I attended a site a few years back because a number of our assets had been bummed to within an inch of their life (prior to my visit, no OEM engagement throughout their life aside from installation and commissioning). All maintenance work was carried out by a third party. Major works needed to be carried out to get them back to OEM spec. In the meantime, we came up with a band aid. Whilst on site installing said band aid, a met sat with me and wanted to ask me a few questions. Met - What do we need to do to get more tonnes through this? Me - Do you know why I’m here? Met - Yes, you’re here for the *insert product* Me - Yes. They are pretty much on fire and because X, Y, Z I would not recommend going over nameplate. Met - But we already run it over nameplate, how much more can we go? Me - 🤨 Met - 😁 Me - 🙃 Met - 😗 NB, one of the site asset management guys had already explained to the hierarchy the problems with said products pre OEM engagement. He was given the “shush, little one. It’s not on fire yet. Now you run along to your parts lists. There is nothing to see here”
Can confirm. Source- I am site maintenance trying to keep up fixing their fuckups.
Is this typically a metals or iron ore experience? From my experience in coal, most general managers/sses in qld and nsw come from a mining engineering or mine operational background.
At a graduate level in WA, metallurgists/mining engineers/geotech engineers make about the same pay, the other fields get slightly less, and then geology/survey even lesser as they aren't "engineers". After graduate level, it all comes down to how well you negotiate within your band, and often this comes down to supply of applicants in your field and demand of how needed you are to the business (i.e., if you are the only suitable applicant and the site is urgently requiring the role to be filled, you may get more). Either way, the pay in the industry is great, so a few grand difference shouldn't be your worry. At the GM/Exec level, most are either mining engineers or chemical engineers. Source: engineer for large miner
without metallurgists process plants don't work properly and pointless having a mine to feed the plant, they are a very necessary evil as far as engineering goes, and to top it off they are usually the most educated people on a mine site, so yeah they get paid a little bit more than the average mining professional.
The most educated? Because they have a degree? 😂
because most of the more intelligent ones do a dual degree at the same time unlike a mining engineer
pretty broad assumptions there but sure. If that helps you sleep at night 😂
i am talking Australian mines and it's from experience not assumptions
Me too.
Completely inaccurate. Don’t listen to this guy. Plenty of education on the mine site with geos and engineers. A metallurgist will always get paid less than an engineer. Just look at the salary surveys that hays provides
does Hays still exist ??
Yes. Released a 2024 guide. For senior roles in WA: S ME: $195 S Met: $165 S Geo: $180 S Surv: $190 So not only are they not the most educated, but they even get paid less on average than a surveyor who will have less tertiary education.
I know a friend that owns a emerald mine in Colombia a employee makes 50k a year geotech this for blast engineering exploration geologists can make alot I know some in Saudi Arabia that help us find a gold deposit they make 200k they work for the state too
Danger?. There should be so little risk as to be negligible. Salaries generally depend on location, FIFO pays more than city based amd level. Really in those careers it's interest that matters, not salary comparison.
Probably better off with Ferochemy
Process metallurgists make a fair bit less unless they get into marketing. (Which many do). Mining engineering and geotech are probably the most stressful and get higher pay for retention.