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The $1500 a day mining job Australian’s don’t know about
The $1500 a day mining job Australian’s don’t know about
When most people think of a big money mining job, it involves driving one of those large trucks on a Coal or Iron Ore mine. While you will make $600 a day doing this job, it is by no means the best paying job in mining. So, what is the best paid job in mining? That someone can get without a trade or degree? The $1500 a day mining job Australians don’t know about?
It will take you 5-10 years of hard work to get there, but the jumbo operator’s job is currently paying $1500-$2000 a day. The work is all around Australia and because of our high standards, there is a lot of international expat work available. If you type “underground” into seek you will see all the jobs come up. Why do jumbo operators get paid so much?
If we take a twin boom Jumbos advancement for example. Most of these drills are using a 5m steel to drill the holes. That are then charged and fired with explosives. You never get the whole 5m in advancement. How much you get depends on where you placed the holes. Most importantly, how straight those holes have been drilled. A good jumbo operator can get up to 4.6m advancement, while others may only get 4.2m. The difference can be measured using the average cost of a metre advancement.
This metre advancement rate can be between $5000 and $8000 a metre. This means if you have one operator getting half a metre more per cut (the term used to describe each advancement), that can be $2500-$4000 less for the company. With each Jumbo operator normally getting 2 cuts per shift, it doesn’t take long for the cost to add up. The difference can be measured in the hundreds of thousands of dollars over the year. Little wonder that people in these jobs get paid over $1500 a day, with their bonus paid in metres advanced instead of time spent on the job. The more metres they get the more money the operator and the company make.
If you want to get onto a career path that will lead to the jumbo, then get your mining knowledge up to speed. You can use one of our training packages, DIY Introduction to underground mining, the W1N W1N package or the Workready package. All of them teach you the entry-level jobs that the employers are advertising for, it just depends on how much support you want (help with resumes, mining knowledge and interview prep). The training gives you all the important mining knowledge the employers want. It covers the Nipper, Truck Operator, Offsider, Agi driver and Service Crew/Paste Crew jobs. These are the entry level jobs on a Hardrock Underground Gold, Nickel, Copper, Silver, Zinc or Base Metals mines around the country. You just have to type “underground” into seek and you will see all the jobs come up around the country. If you want to talk to someone leave your details in the link.
Good luck, hope everyone gets the mining job they want.
Regards
The Mining Coach