Our Earth is a treasure trove of valuable, underground resources, and mining engineers help to locate them. They and petroleum engineers also design techniques and equipment that ensure that minerals, oil and gas are extracted as safely and cleanly as possible. Moreover, some petroleum engineers also work on developing alternative energy sources.

Make a Difference!
Natural gas is a fossil fuel, but it’s a much cleaner producer of electricity than oil. Gas plants also start up quickly. As such, natural gas plants are the best back-ups to plants that run on intermittent sources of energy, like solar and wind. So gas is an important transition fuel for an eventual carbon-free power system. And mining and petroleum engineers are key to finding and developing new, domestic sources of gas.

Did you know?
Diamonds are America’s favorite gem, but Alabama’s Crater of Diamonds is the only active diamond mine in the U.S. And it’s a state park—not a commercial enterprise—where anyone can diamond hunt for a small fee. But mining engineers say prospects for future, profitable commercial mines in the U.S. are sparklingly good, and they’re working to develop them.

Where do they Work?
Mined materials are essential to modern life, so jobs are plentiful. Mining engineers work in many industries, including mining (BHP Billiton, Phelps Dodge Corp., Newmont); specialty machinery and equipment (Herrenknecht, Ingersoll-Rand, Joy Mining Machinery); building materials (Aggregate Industries); and construction/ engineering (Kiewit, Frontier-Kemper, Drummond Co., Granite Construction). Industries employing petroleum engineers include: major oil companies (Marathon Oil, Chevron, BP) as well as smaller ones (Apache Corp., Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Jetta Operating Co.); utilities (Duke Power); chemicals (Dow Chemical); and oil-and-gas services (Schlumberger, Halliburton, BJ Services).

Meet an Engineer!
Braden Lusk’s day job is at the University of Kentucky; he’s an assistant professor of mining engineering. Much of his research involves explosives and blast migration (unsurprisingly, some of his work is funded by the departments of Defense and Homeland Security). But he’s got a great moonlighting gig, too. Lusk co-hosts the Discovery Channel’s The Detonators, where he explains how to safely use explosives to demolish everything from skyscrapers to bridges. Lucky Lusk gets to jet to major demolition locations worldwide, from Liverpool, England, to the Bahamas.

COOL FACT: As a child, Lusk showed an early aptitude for things that go boom. He loved using Fourth of July firecrackers to blow up all manner of things, from toys to apples.

Watch Braden Lusk on The Detonators:

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Filed under: Explore Engineering, Mining

Tags: Mining