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Professionals · code 2146

Mining engineers, metallurgists and related professionals

Mining engineers, metallurgists and related professionals conduct research on, design, develop and maintain commercial-scale methods of extracting metals from their ores, or minerals, water, oil or gas from the earth, and of developing new alloys, ceramic and other materials, or study and advise on mining or metallurgical aspects of particular materials, products or processes. Tasks include - (a) determining the location and planning the extraction of coal, metallic ores, non-metallic minerals, and building materials such as stone and gravel; (b) determining the most suitable methods of efficient mining and extraction and types of machinery to be used, planning layout and directing construction of shafts and tunnels; (c) determining drilling sites and devising methods of controlling the flow of water, oil or gas from wells; (d) planning and directing storage, initial treatment and transportation of water, oil or gas; (e) establishing safety standards and procedures and first-aid facilities, especially underground; (f) conducting research, developing methods of extracting metals from their ores and advising on their application; (g) investigating properties of metals and alloys, developing new alloys and advising on and supervising technical aspects of metal and alloy manufacture and processing; (h) maintaining technical liaison and consultancy with other relevant specialists such as geologists and geophysicists; (i) examining deposits or mines to evaluate profitability. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Extractive metallurgist - Mining engineer - Petroleum and natural gas extraction engineer Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Geologist - 2114 - Geophysicist - 2114

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 236 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • quarry engineer
  • petroleum engineer
  • drilling engineer
  • mine development engineer
  • metallurgist
  • assayer
  • liquid fuel engineer
  • mine planning engineer
  • mineral processing engineer
  • mine health and safety engineer
  • explosives engineer

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

70.7
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 29.3 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 29.3 = 70.7

That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.

23.8
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 4 US jobs

16.5
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 21.9 · hand skill 10.7 · cramped spaces 16.9 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on under 50 Less than half hands-on

Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

What this number leaves out This job rates 23.8 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.

The tasks behind the score

The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.

The task AI could do most of scores 36.5, while the average is 29.3. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.

  1. 36.5

    Planning and directing storage, initial treatment and transportation of water, oil or gas

    Low
  2. 35

    Maintaining technical liaison and consultancy with other relevant specialists such as geologists and geophysicists

    Low
  3. 31

    Determining most suitable methods of efficient mining and extraction and types of machinery to be used, planning layout and directing construction of shafts and tunnels

    Low
  4. 30.8

    Conducting research, developing methods of extracting metals from their ores and advising on their application

    Low
  5. 29.5

    Investigating properties of metals and alloys, developing new alloys and advising on and supervising technical aspects of metal and alloy manufacture and processing

    Low
  6. 28.5

    Determining the location and planning the extraction of coal, metallic ores, non-metallic minerals, and building materials, such as stone and gravel

    Low
  7. 26.8

    Determining drilling site and devising methods of controlling the flow of water, oil or gas from wells

    Low
  8. 26

    Examining deposits or mines to evaluate profitability.

    Low
  9. 19.3

    Establishing safety standards and procedures and first-aid facilities, especially underground

    Very Low

9 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting

Helped, or replaced?

The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.

3 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

AI helps you
72.7
AI does it for you
33

Helping wins by 39.7 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 2336, 2339, 2349

Compared with similar jobs

There are 92 jobs in the “Professionals” group, averaging 61.2. This one is above that.