CostMine’s 2012 survey of U.S. mine salaries

 

Engineering building

Just received a copy of the CostMine 2012 Survey Results U.S. Metal and Industrial Mineral Mine Salaries, Wages and Benefits.

Here are some salaries that caught my eye. In future blog postings I will write more about wages and executive compensation which are also covered in the survey.

In thousands of dollars, here are annual salaries for selected job title for U.S. metal mines:

  • General Manager = 178
  • Mine Manager = 130
  • Mill Superintendant = 109
  • Mine Engineer = 79
  • Chief Geologist = 104
  • Environmental Coordinator = 85
  • Secretary = 39

The survey contains salary ranges and averages for many more job titles;  you will need to get the full survey to get the details. But here are a few ranges, again for U.S. metal mines in thousands of dollars.

  • Mine Manager= from 78 to 198
  • Chief Engineer = from 78 to 135
  • Accountant = from 32 to 120

I wonder which mine pays its accountant a mere $32,000 a year?  Must be a small operation.

Folk at Industrial Mineral mines earn less than those on metal mines.  A few examples:

  • General Manager = 142 vs 178
  • Chief Engineer = 87 vs 112
  • Warehouse Clerk = 42 vs 52

You earn more on a big mine than on a small mine.  Some examples:

  • Mill Superintendant = 92 vs 110
  • Mine Geologist = 64 vs 75
  • Accountant = 62 vs 71

Hope these ranges help pin down what you should be earning at a U.S. mine. Keep in mind the ranges are large; the differences between large and small mines is significant; engineers at non-union mines earn more than at union mines; salaries vary by region of the country; job titles and salaries are not uniform across the country; and of course personal experience counts a great deal.

See the CareerMine Salary Survey for more information about salaries and some details of salary relative to years of experience.  I see there, for example, that for environmental engineers with one to five years experience the media annual salary is $75K with the 75%ile being $80K. Compare that to the CostMine average of $85, and you get some idea of the impact of years of experience.

Get you human resource officer to get the full survey if you would like to drill down into the details. And let me know how it works out.

For more from Jack Caldwell, see his blog, I Think Mining>>

Image: Jack Caldwell