The New Australian Gold Boom, how to take Advantage & make some Money
The new Australian Gold boom
The new Australian Gold boom is here with Gold at $148.48 per gram in Australian Dollars (22/02/25). At this price the 290 tons that we mined as a country last year, is worth a little over $43 Billion. So how can the average person get ahead of the game and make some money out of this boom before everyone finds out about it?
There are a couple of different ways you can go about it and whether you are the person with a pan and detector prospecting, or the person that decides to start a career with a big company like Northern Star (that is currently doubling its capacity from 26tons to 52tons a year of Gold at its Kalgoorlie operations) there is money to be made. It just depends on what sort of conditions or lifestyle you are after.
While the life style of a prospector can be attractive to those with a free spirit (3 grams of Gold a day would see you making just over $100k a year for a standard working week, 48 weeks a year, working for yourself). However, there isn’t a lot of security prospecting and if you are not on good ground there can be an element of luck and risk involved. That’s why an entry level job on a Gold mine can be a good career move, with it being full time work that is mostly even time rosters (some companies start their new starters on 2 weeks on 1 week off).
The even time rosters are either, week on, week off or 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off, you get 20 days (some companies do 25 days) annual leave and 10 days sick leave as well. This means for most of these even time jobs if you take your annual leave you only work 23 weeks of the year, which makes for some serious time off for your life style. This is how your career can progress from a $90k entry level job to a $300k plus Jumbo operator job in 5 to 10 years (and yes the $300k plus is still only working the 23 weeks a year).
Entry level
Nipper, Service Crew, Paste Crew, Diamond Drill Offsider, Agi Operator and Truck Operator
Most people within the industry talk about wages as a day rate. As a new starter you will start on a day rate of around $400 to $500, once you can be left alone it goes up to $500-$600 a day. Most companies have their experienced truck drivers on between $500 and $600 a day
Depending on roster, those rates work out to $90,000 to $120,000 a year
If you type “underground” into seek you will see all the jobs, come up. Due to the boom in Gold prices, all employers have had no choice but to hire new starters. Teaching someone to drive the truck is the easy part, teaching them enough about how the mine works so they can be left alone to drive the truck on their own, that’s the hard part and why there is a high turnover of new starters and why the training was written. This means, if you can show the employer that you know how their mine works and what’s going to be expected of you working on their mine site, then it puts you 6 to 8 weeks ahead of everyone else the employers are looking at for these jobs.
2nd Tier
Service Crew Leader (leading hand), Bogger Operator, Diamond Driller, Long hole Operator and Charge Up. The day rate for these jobs is $700 to $1000 plus a day or more depending on the company. Those rates work out to $140,000 to $220,000plus depending on job and roster.
3rd Tier
Jumbo Operator, Shift Supervisor and Foreman. The day rates for these jobs have a wide range from $1200 to $3000 plus a day. Those rates work out to $200,000 to $400,000 plus and will take you 5 to 10 years to get to, but with all the jobs around it is a very achievable goal.
How can I start this career?
The easiest way to start a mining career is to follow our 2 simple rules
- Go where the employers have no choice but to hire new starters
- Give them what they want, someone that knows how the mine works
Going where the employers have no choice to hire new starters, includes areas in the north of QLD, in the middle of NSW and of course here in WA, around Kalgoorlie and FIFO from Perth. These are the hot spots, but there are mines looking for new starters in Gold mines all around Australia. You only have to look at our Mining Jobs to Apply for page or type “Underground” into seek, to see all the jobs.
That leaves the second rule, giving the employers want they want. This is where people delude themselves into thinking that something other than knowing how the employers mine works, is going to help the employer and help them get a job. No amount of equipment experience helps the employer, if you need a babysitter for the first 3 months, because you can’t get your head around how the mine works. The longer you need a babysitter the more the pressure gets ramped up and the more people fail.
I can’t make this any clearer to new starters, that teaching someone to drive the underground truck is the easy part. It only takes a couple of weeks, they are point and shoot, hydraulic steering, automatics. They are the most expensive trucks you will have ever driven ($3million to $4.5million each), but the easiest. The problem is teaching that person enough about how the mine works, so they can be left alone to drive the truck on their own. This is the hard part and the reason more than 50% of green new starters fail in the first 6 months. Even the ones with lots of equipment experience fail at this rate because if you can’t be left alone to do the job safely then you just don’t have a job.
It’s as simple as that, pure sink or swim training, with lots of people sinking. When if they had done the training and learnt how it all worked before they went, then they would have had a completely different result. Knowing how the employers mine works puts you 6 to 8 weeks ahead of everyone else applying for jobs and how the training helps people get jobs. You can checkout our Wall of Fame page to see just how many people have used the training to get jobs.
Remember gold mines are where the jobs are in 2025 and if you want the education to get a job in one of these mines, then this is the link to the DIY introduction to underground mining training package. There are full instructions on how to redo your resume (it takes about 2 hours to do yourself) and interview prep questions as well as a mining company to apply to directly. If you want your resume done for you checkout our 3 Step Plan package that we do with Beyond Recruitment & Resumes.
If you want help getting in, then we also do a Workready package, where you get a ticketed WA shift boss to help you with the mining information (they ask you lots of mining questions to make sure you have learned the information). They will redo your resume, do interview prep (including a mock interview) and come up with a plan of where and how to get in.
If you’ve got any questions or if you’d like to talk to someone, you can leave your details on this enquiry form and we will be in contact.
I hope this info helps.
The Mining Coach
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