Not Underground

Typically, an underground coal mine runs continuously on a shift system. There's a day, afternoon and night shift and the productions and preparations teams will cycle through these shifts on a week to week basis. There could also be a long weekend where the entire mine is off the Friday and Saturday.

This means that most of the people that you as the mine geologist will come into contact with will be guys who are constantly underground and work shifts. To them, if you're not underground you're not doing any real work. The real work is done by the people in the face getting the coal out. Except if you're in financial or a secretary ;-).

This sometimes puts geologists in tight spots. A lot of what I do, is modelling on a computer, pulling out the relevant data from the model and getting the right info to the right people. You do underground mapping and inspections, but you don't work shifts 24-7. But, if you're not visible to the production teams (i.e. your customers), they will not trust your work or respect your opinions. I'm not saying work 10 hour shifts underground each day, but regularly weekly visits with the mine captains and shiftbosses are a must. Also, many production meetings will only need your input for maybe 10 minutes, but being there for the entire meeting shows that you want to and are part of the team.

It's a very tricky line between keeping everyone happy and still getting to your own work. Mynbou is nie vir sussies nie! (Mining is not for the faint-hearted :-)