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Open Pit Mining Jobs

Strip mining is another name for open pit mining, which involves an extraction method of rocks or minerals from an open pit. The minerals are closer to the surface of the earth. Also known as open-cast mining, open pit mining which produces stones and building materials are known as quarries. Open pit mines are also less expensive to operate than the mines which are underground since no drilling into the ground to build elevator shafts to transport miners to below and above to the surface. One of the reasons the open pit mine is often called strip mining is due to the fact that the mines are usually made larger until the resource is completely depleted or the open pit mining has become unprofitable.

Then other open pit mining sites will be found and the ensuing activity will require more workers and this is where the opportunities for open pit mining jobs emerge. There are many jobs available, too. There is the need for surface mining equipment operators who use heavy equipment to retrieve the minerals from the surface (or just beneath the surface) of the earth in the mining operations. These people will also be known as loader operators, miners, scraper operators, strip mining equipment operators, truck-shovel operators, and open pit mining equipment operators. More job openings will be for blasters who use detonators to explode rock and bring down structures. These employees are known as construction blasters, surface mine blasters, and underground mine blasters.

The operation of an open pit mine are as follows: the bulldozer operators will finish the first phase of open pit mining. They will uncover the ore with the equipment. The drillers and/or blasters will drill holes in the earth and put the proper amount of explosives in the holes to blast and remove the rock. The drill supervisor will oversee that operation. Then scalers will make sure that the sides of the rocks are free of any that may fall, injuring the workers. Next, the crane operators operate the equipment and then the drop balls hit the boulders that contain the mineral. Power shovel operators retrieve the mineral and put it into trucks or railroad cars. Shovel operators will use excavators to dump ore onto conveyor belts which run from the mine onto the mill. The pit supervisor is in charge of all the work. Additional personnel are needed where an open pit mine is concerned. However, these are the "higher" level employees, one such example is the principal open pit mining engineer who needs a minimum of 20 to 30 years of experience and a Master degree in mining engineering.

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