Miner CV Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is an underground miner with about eleven years, starting in a limestone quarry and moving underground into rock salt and then other industrial minerals, some of the few kinds of deep mining still active in the UK. The name and sites are invented. Swap in your own mines or quarries, equipment, tonnages and training dates.

Mining CVs are usually screened by a mine or quarry manager, a superintendent or a safety manager, not by HR. They read for four things.

• Is your training current? Quarries usually want an induction record and a quarry health and safety card such as SHEA; underground mines run their own induction, task training and refreshers. A current record means you can start sooner.
• Have you been assessed as competent? UK mines and quarries must put competent people on each task, so a signed-off competence record or an NVQ in quarry or plant operations shows you can be put to work quickly.
• What can you run alone? Continuous miner, roof bolter, shuttle car, loader, jumbo, dump truck, loading shovel, dozer, drill. Names and models, because a mine buys and staffs specific fleets.
• What is your safety record? Reportable injuries, near-miss reporting, breaches attributed to your section, and whether you have been on a mine rescue brigade. Safety history is the first thing that gets checked in an interview and the last thing that gets forgiven.

“Give me your training status, your certification record, what you can operate and how long you have gone without a reportable. That is the CV. The rest is conversation once you are sitting across from me.”

Three or four lines. Years, mine or quarry type, equipment, training status, one production or safety number. If you are new to mining, use a career objective and lead with your training and your availability for shift work.

One bullet per real task, with a number: metres, tonnes, bolts, loads, hours, absences, incidents. Choose the group that matches your side of the industry.

Twelve to sixteen, equipment first. Write the machines by name and type, because that is what a superintendent is staffing.

Underground equipment and tasks:

• Continuous miner, longwall shearer, jumbo drill
• Roof bolter, resin and mechanical bolts, straps and mesh
• Shuttle car, ram car, LHD, battery loader, personnel carrier
• Feeder-breaker, belt structure and conveyor work
• Ventilation controls: stoppings, curtains, brattice, regulators
• Sprayed concrete and ground support crews, if you have done hard rock or tunnelling

Surface equipment:

• Rigid and articulated dump trucks, with tonnage class
• Loading shovel, excavator, dozer, grader, water bowser
• Blast-hole drill and drill pattern support
• Crusher and plant control room relief
• Dispatch systems and fleet management software

Safety, examination and general skills:

• Gas detection and methane checks; handheld and machine-mounted detectors
• Self-rescuer use, escape route and evacuation procedures
• Roof, side and quarry face examination
• Pre-use checks and workplace inspections with written records
• Isolation, lockout and de-energising equipment
• Basic hydraulics, electrical troubleshooting and welding
• Mine rescue, first aid at work, CPR
• Rotating shifts, extended hours and working-away rosters

This is the section a mine reads before your work history, because it decides whether you can be on site next week.

• Quarries in Great Britain work under the Quarries Regulations 1999. Expect a site induction, task training and competence assessment; many operators also ask for a quarry health and safety card (SHEA) and qualifications such as an NVQ in plant or quarry operations.
• The few underground mines in Great Britain, mainly potash, polyhalite, salt and gypsum, work under the Mines Regulations 2014. Each runs its own underground induction, task training and refreshers.
• Give the year of your original training and the date of your most recent refresher. Employers keep training records; if you have copies, bring them to the interview.
• There is no state-style miner certification in the UK. Instead, name your competence sign-offs and qualifications, such as an NVQ in quarrying or mining operations, and say they are current.
• Mine rescue brigade training with the Mines Rescue Service is worth its own line. Operations value it.
• Specialist tickets: a shotfirer qualification, an electrical qualification, welding qualifications, First Aid at Work, CPCS or NPORS plant cards, and a Category C or C+E driving licence.
• If you are applying overseas, note that other countries have their own systems. Australian sites, for example, ask for a Standard 11 general induction plus site-specific inductions, and US mines require MSHA training. List each as what it is, not as a UK qualification.

Quarries and the few UK mines take on new starters regularly, especially for quarry plant and general operative roles underground. What they will not do is train someone who looks like a flight risk on the roster.

1. 1Get a quarry health and safety (SHEA) card yourself if you can. Training providers run short courses, and a candidate who already has one is cheaper to hire.
2. 2Put the advert's title under your name, such as "Underground Operative" or "Dump Truck Operator", not "General Operative".
3. 3Write a career objective that names your training status and your availability for rotating shifts, nights and working away.
4. 4Translate whatever heavy or outdoor work you have done: construction, groundworks, forestry, farm machinery, offshore, HGV driving, the armed forces, plant maintenance.
5. 5List your licences and cards: driving licence category, CPCS or NPORS plant cards, forklift, CSCS, First Aid at Work, welding.
6. 6Give an attendance number from your last job. Reliability is the trait that gets green hires kept on.

• One page, two if you have supervisory or specialist history. Mine and quarry managers read fast.
• Order: name and target title, three-line personal statement, training and certifications, work history, equipment and skills, education.
• Plain one-column layout, PDF. Large mining companies use application systems that mangle sidebars.
• No photo, no date of birth, no marital status. That is standard on a UK CV.
• Say what roster you can work: four on four off, days and nights, two weeks on and one off, working away. Rosters are the reason many hires fall through, so answer the question up front.
• If you are applying overseas, expect different training names and, in some countries, a personal details section that would be unusual in the UK.

Words worth mirroring from the advert when they are true of you: Quarries Regulations, Mines Regulations, site induction, refresher training, underground, surface, room and pillar, continuous miner, roof bolter, shuttle car, loader, LHD, jumbo, dump truck, loading shovel, dozer, strata control, support rules, ventilation, methane, gas detection, self-rescuer, pre-use checks, mine rescue, isolation, tonnes, metres of advance, rotating shifts.