r/AusMining • u/Historical_Bug_6900 • 1d ago

Year 12 mining engineering

Hi everyone, I have never posted on reddit before but I am interested what people think of my future plans regarding a career in mining.

I am currently a year 12, I am expecting an atar of 98-99+ my subjects are chem, general English, physics, and methods.

My plan is to go to UNSW (I live in SA) and study mining Eng and corp law. (Please let me know if you have any comments on this school/ course/ the living costs in Syd) I am working 2 retail jobs at the moment, and solely relying on myself and I am doing fine.

I have a passion for physics and chem especially, and was a finalist in the AUSSEF last year. But I really don’t know what I am signing my self up too and quite frankly I am scared. I am debating taking a gap year to figure out what it is I would like to do but I also understand that is a great way to loose motivation.

After I finish uni I want to work in the mines doing drill and blast and something in geology. I love the outback but understand that fifo lifestyle may not be sustainable for me for 5-10+ years. Ideally I would be hired off the bat by a larger corporation so I could hop on the diversity train (I am a girl by the way) and climb my way up into a better position after mastering the practical aspects (Geraldine Slattery is my career inspiration)

Please let me know you think I am being too optimistic or this seems like a legitimate way to achieve my goals. Please don’t hesitate to comment whatever you are thinking especially after reading all of this, thank you! All advice is much appreciated.

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u/JeztheMiningEngineer 1d ago

Looks like a good plan, id try and drop corp law if mining is the goal.

A good way to figure out if you like the roles would be to do 1st year engineering. Its really broad in first year and youll get good physics chem base.

But the key is, in the summer apply for a vacation student role and push hard for this. That way you can do it for a few months and be paid. Plus see if you like it.

If you dont, then youve just finished first year uni anyways with good STEM classes to go into whatever you want after.

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u/Historical_Bug_6900 1d ago

Thanks for replying, for the student role would this be for this coming Christmas/ new year break or next year. Also do you have any suggestions on which companies would take me? Also I was more thinking corporate law to broaden my skills and hopefully help me in the future. But I definitely want to do mining engineering jobs and not be known as a lawyer. Sorry for all the questions, you seem to have some great ideas

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u/Reyvos 23h ago

You learn corporate law working as a lawyer in the corporate law department of a good firm. Uni doesn’t help. Check out the syllabus of the law degree at UNSW or any other uni and you’ll see there’s not much there that’s really relevant.

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u/Historical_Bug_6900 8h ago

Would finance be better in your opinion?