Top 12 Underground Miner Skills to Put on Your Resume

In the competitive world of underground mining, a resume that leans hard on specific, job-ready skills wins attention. Spell out the capabilities that matter underground—what you can run, what you can fix, what you can manage—and you signal readiness for tough conditions and high-stakes shifts.

Underground Miner Skills

1. Drilling
2. Blasting
3. Ventilation Management
4. Roof Bolting
5. Longwall Mining
6. Continuous Miner
7. Shotcrete Application
8. LHD (Load-Haul-Dump) Operation
9. Jumbo Drill Operation
10. Conveyor Maintenance
11. Mine Safety Compliance
12. Scooptram Maneuvering

1. Drilling

Drilling in underground mining means creating precise holes in rock for blasting, roof support, drainage, or exploration using specialized rigs and consumables.

Why It's Important

Without good drilling, blasts underperform, support patterns fall short, and cycles drag. Accurate holes drive clean breakage, safer headings, and faster advance.

How to Improve Drilling Skills

Better drilling blends sharp technique, tuned gear, and constant feedback:

1. Optimize patterns and parameters: Match burden, spacing, hole diameter, and depth to rock mass conditions and blast goals. Adjust RPM, feed pressure, and flushing for stability and straightness.

2. Keep rigs tight: Planned maintenance on feeds, boom joints, rotation units, and dust collectors. Worn steel and couplings wreck accuracy—replace on schedule.

3. Use measurement-while-drilling data: Track torque, penetration rate, and air pressure to infer hardness and adjust on the fly. Calibrate lasers and navigation systems often.

4. Sharpen operator competency: Targeted training on collaring technique, deviation control, and safe setup in tricky ground. Refreshers, not just inductions.

5. Close the loop with blast results: Measure overbreak, fragmentation, and pull. Feed that back into pattern tweaks and rig settings.

How to Display Drilling Skills on Your Resume

2. Blasting

Blasting is the controlled use of explosives to fracture rock for excavation, development, or production underground.

Why It's Important

Good blasts move rock cleanly and predictably, cut dilution, protect ground, and keep crews out of harm’s way. Poor blasts do the opposite, loudly.

How to Improve Blasting Skills

1. Dial in blast design: Burden, spacing, subdrill, and hole angle tuned to geology. Use perimeter control where needed. Stemming that seals properly.

2. Upgrade timing precision: Electronic detonators deliver tight delay control, better fragmentation, lower vibration, and cleaner walls.

3. Boost QA/QC: Charge weight checks, column height verification, and hole deviation surveys. Keep detailed blast records.

4. Mind the gear: Calibrated loaders, reliable detonator testers, safe storage. Maintain strict segregation and handling procedures.

5. Ventilate fast, re-enter safer: Post-blast fume clearance plans that match headings and fans. Continuous gas monitoring before re-entry.

6. Audit and learn: Fragmentation analysis, flyrock reviews, misfire investigations. Adjust designs, not just notes.

How to Display Blasting Skills on Your Resume

3. Ventilation Management

Ventilation management supplies clean air to headings and removes fumes, dust, gases, and heat using primary fans, auxiliary fans, ducting, stoppings, and controls.

Why It's Important

Air keeps people alive. It also keeps equipment cooler, power tripping lower, and production moving. Poor airflow invites exposure, heat stress, and incidents.

How to Improve Ventilation Management Skills

1. Monitor continuously: Real-time sensors for O2, CO, NOx, SO2, methane, and diesel particulate matter. Trend the data; don’t just glance.

2. Ventilation-on-demand: Adjust airflow based on activity and location to save power while meeting standards. Dampers and variable-speed drives do the heavy lifting.

3. Strengthen controls: Maintain stoppings, regulators, and doors. Seal leaks. Keep ducting tight and well hung to cut pressure loss.

4. Control dust and DPM: Water sprays, scrubbers, filtration, low-sulfur fuel, and engine after-treatment. Housekeeping that actually bites.

5. Plan ahead: Update vent plans as headings advance. Model changes before you move fans.

6. Train for the unexpected: Smoke tests, evacuation drills, and clear response roles for ventilation failures.

How to Display Ventilation Management Skills on Your Resume

4. Roof Bolting

Roof bolting secures the mine roof with mechanical or resin-anchored bolts, mesh, and plates to stabilize openings and protect crews.

Why It's Important

It’s fundamental ground control. Good bolting prevents falls of ground, reduces downtime, and anchors confidence in the heading.

How to Improve Roof Bolting Skills

1. Choose the right system: Match bolt type (resin, mechanical, cable) and length to geology, stress, and depth. Use mesh, straps, or channels where needed.

2. Install correctly: Hole cleaning, proper resin mixing time, torque-tensioning, and plate seating. No shortcuts on encapsulation.

3. Inspect and test: Pull tests, torque checks, and routine visual inspections. Track performance over time.

4. Use the data: Map fractures and bedding; let geotech input guide patterns and density.

5. Reduce exposure: Remote or mechanized bolting where conditions are unstable. Shields and safe positioning always.

How to Display Roof Bolting Skills on Your Resume

5. Longwall Mining

Longwall mining extracts a block of coal (or similar bedded deposit) in a single continuous slice using a shearer and armored face conveyor, with hydraulic shields that advance as the face retreats.

Why It's Important

It concentrates production, limits worker exposure at the face, and drives consistent tonnage when systems are tuned and geology behaves.

How to Improve Longwall Mining Skills

1. Stabilize the system: Keep shields, AFC, and shearer in harmony—horizon control, cutting height, and shield tip-to-face distance aligned.

2. Watch the ground: Monitor convergence, shield pressures, and face conditions. Adjust cutting strategies as stress changes.

3. Ventilate the face: Robust methane drainage and airflow. Gas trips are production killers—prevention beats reset buttons.

4. Maintain relentlessly: Planned component swaps for chains, gearboxes, picks, and hydraulics. Predictive diagnostics where available.

5. Train crews as one unit: Operators, electricians, fitters, and deputies working from the same playbook and shift handovers that actually transfer knowledge.

How to Display Longwall Mining Skills on Your Resume

6. Continuous Miner

A continuous miner is an electrically powered machine with a rotating cutting drum that shears coal or soft rock and transfers it to haulage, enabling continuous cutting without drill-and-blast.

Why It's Important

It’s the heartbeat of many room-and-pillar operations—fast cutting, fewer explosives, tighter cycles, and reduced exposure time at the face.

How to Improve Continuous Miner Skills

1. Keep picks sharp and drums true: Correct pick lacing, timely bit changes, balanced drums, and cutter head inspections to prevent chatter and heat.

2. Control dust and gases: Effective water sprays, scrubbers, and maintained seals. Continuous gas monitoring and proper ventilation at the face.

3. Manage tram and horizon: Proper tram speed, cutter depth, and horizon control systems for straighter entries and fewer roof problems.

4. Protect people: Proximity detection, clear exclusion zones, and camera systems to improve visibility.

5. Mind the cables and hoses: Cable handling, strain relief, and tidy hose routing reduce damage and unplanned stops.

6. Maintenance with foresight: Routine checks on motors, gearboxes, chains, and electrics. Use onboard diagnostics and predictive trends where possible.

7. Train operators deeply: Start-up checks, cutting sequences, recovery from stalls, and emergency procedures drilled until automatic.

How to Display Continuous Miner Skills on Your Resume

7. Shotcrete Application

Shotcrete application sprays concrete at high velocity to reinforce walls and backs, locking in loose rock and building a durable shell in underground openings.

Why It's Important

It stabilizes ground quickly, cuts scaling hazards, and forms the backbone for long-term support in challenging ground.

How to Improve Shotcrete Application Skills

1. Tune the mix: Wet- or dry-mix selected for conditions. Use accelerators, fibers, and admixtures for pumpability, adhesion, and early strength with low rebound.

2. Prep the surface: Scale loose rock, clean, dampen. Reinforcement and mesh placed correctly before spray.

3. Nail the technique: Nozzle perpendicular, steady distance, layered passes to build thickness without sag. Control rebound and shadowing around steel.

4. Maintain equipment: Pumps, hoses, and nozzles cleaned and inspected. Air pressure and water flow set to spec.

5. Verify quality: Thickness pins, cores, and panel tests. Cure and protect from rapid drying or freezing.

6. Work safe: Ventilate for dust and fumes, shield crews, and enforce exclusion zones during spraying.

How to Display Shotcrete Application Skills on Your Resume

8. LHD (Load-Haul-Dump) Operation

LHD operation covers loading broken rock, hauling it through drifts, and dumping at passes, ore bins, or trucks—tight turns, tight timelines.

Why It's Important

Ore doesn’t move itself. Smooth LHD cycles shrink delays, reduce wear, and cut exposure to pinch points and congestion.

How to Improve LHD (Load-Haul-Dump) Operation Skills

1. Plan the traffic: One-way systems, pull-outs, and clear right-of-way rules. Staging that prevents choke points.

2. Keep machines healthy: Preventive maintenance on drivetrains, brakes, steering, hydraulics, and cooling. Tire care pays for itself.

3. Train for finesse: Smooth throttle, precise bucket control, correct loading angles, and spot checks before every run.

4. Leverage tech: Dispatch systems, telemetry, and on-board weighing to balance cycles. Remote or teleremote in hot zones.

5. Ventilate the routes: Diesel particulate controls—or go battery-electric to cut heat and fumes where possible.

6. Design safe dumps: Solid berms, clear spotting markers, good lighting, and level pads. Spotters with a plan, not guesswork.

How to Display LHD (Load-Haul-Dump) Operation Skills on Your Resume

9. Jumbo Drill Operation

Jumbo drill operation uses multi-boom rigs to drill blastholes or bolt holes to plan, with accuracy that sets the tone for the entire cycle.

Why It's Important

Precise holes mean cleaner blasts, less overbreak, faster support, and fewer nasty surprises in the next round.

How to Improve Jumbo Drill Operation Skills

1. Set up perfectly: Rig positioning, boom alignment, and checks against survey control. Lasers verified, not assumed.

2. Drill to design: Correct diameter, depth, angle, and sequence. Keep steel straight and couplings tight to limit deviation.

3. Manage consumables: Rotate and replace bits before they burn. Lubricate and clean hammer/rotary systems to extend life.

4. Maintain the rig: Preventive maintenance on booms, feed rails, rotation heads, and dust collectors. Fix play before it ruins accuracy.

5. Capture and use data: Record penetration rates, deviation, and hole completion. Feed results into the next plan.

6. Work safely: Clear zones during boom movement, proper ground support before advancing, and disciplined lockout for maintenance.

How to Display Jumbo Drill Operation Skills on Your Resume

10. Conveyor Maintenance

Conveyor maintenance keeps belt systems in underground mines running—tracking, splices, idlers, drives, guarding, and all the little pieces that fail at the worst time.

Why It's Important

Belts move tonnage cheaply. When they stop, costs spike and headings backlog. Safety risks climb with hurried fixes.

How to Improve Conveyor Maintenance Skills

1. Routine inspections: Belt tracking, splice integrity, idler condition, take-up tension, and guarding. Listen for bad bearings; heat tells tales.

2. Predict and prevent: Vibration analysis, thermal imaging, and motor current trending to flag issues early.

3. Clean relentlessly: Skirt seals, belt cleaners, and regular cleanup to prevent carryback and buildup at transfers.

4. Protect against fire and rips: Fire suppression where required, pull-cord testing, and rip detection on long runs.

5. Stock smart spares: Critical pulleys, bearings, idlers, belting, and splice kits on hand. Downtime is the enemy.

6. Lockout like you mean it: Clear procedures, verification steps, and supervision during any belt work.

How to Display Conveyor Maintenance Skills on Your Resume

11. Mine Safety Compliance

Mine safety compliance means meeting or exceeding regulatory requirements and site standards to protect workers, equipment, and the environment underground.

Why It's Important

The hazards are real—ground falls, gases, fires, equipment interactions. Compliance keeps risk controlled and people going home.

How to Improve Mine Safety Compliance Skills

1. Train with purpose: Inductions, task-specific competency, and frequent refreshers on hazard recognition and emergency response.

2. Audit and verify: Regular inspections, behavioral observations, and corrective actions that actually close the loop.

3. Adopt proven tech: Proximity detection, gas monitoring, collision avoidance, and digital permit-to-work systems.

4. Strengthen ventilation and controls: Systems maintained to spec; alarms tested; contingencies ready.

5. Prepare for worst-case: Drills for fire, refuge, evacuation, and first aid. Roles crystal clear, equipment inspection-ready.

6. Track health: Respiratory protection fit testing, noise exposure management, fatigue controls, and medical surveillance where required.

How to Display Mine Safety Compliance Skills on Your Resume

12. Scooptram Maneuvering

Scooptram maneuvering is the art and discipline of driving an underground loader through cramped headings to pick, carry, and dump material without drama.

Why It's Important

Precision saves time, prevents damage, and avoids incidents. In tight drifts, every inch matters.

How to Improve Scooptram Maneuvering Skills

1. Train the fundamentals: OEM or accredited mining academy courses on advanced handling, loading posture, and hazard awareness.

2. Use simulators: Practice complex turns, grades, and emergency scenarios without risk.

3. Pre-start discipline: Brake tests, steering checks, lights, alarms, and tire inspections—every shift.

4. Refine techniques: Three-point turns, correct approach angles, controlled reversing with cameras and spotters where needed.

5. Mind the ground: Respect grade limits, maintain berms, keep floors tidy to protect tires and axles.

6. Leverage assistance: Payload monitoring, traction control, and teleremote for hazardous zones.

How to Display Scooptram Maneuvering Skills on Your Resume