My Friend's Tragedy: Near Miss

                Tragedies are bound to happen in the mining industry till the safety practices aren't ensured. These tragedies when hit by the media roundabout the clock it creates the dreadful image of the mining industry in the minds of the common people. The manner the mining people deal with the accidents is the worthwhile watch for example the rescue operation in the San Jose mine, Chile. My friend, Graduate Engineer Trainee in the industry happened to bump into an accident in the underground mine from which he escaped nearing to death. The way he handled the situation and the modifications he brought up to prevent the further damage was commendable.

                Near Miss otherwise known as close call is an unplanned event that did not result in injury, illness or damage but had the potential to do so. Near miss events ante cede the major disaster that causes huge losses. Reporting the near miss accidents can enhance the safety aspects of the organization. Preventive measures have to be adopted to avert the incident on a larger scale.

                My friend being in the industry for a month was acquainted of the underground mine and was allotted a specific work each day by his superiors. His work was to acquire knowledge about the working of the mines and to get prepared for handling his charge. On that particular day he was sent for pump inspection in the mine. He as a newbie was standing at the corner of the cement parting between the sumps shut by planks and the mining mate who has accompanied him was inspecting and having small talk with the worker about the working and maintenance of pumps. Within a fraction of a second the middle plank on the main sump collapsed, the planks at the corner slide inwards and him ending up slipping deep into the main sump. The main sump was filled with all kinds of scrap and it has become the quicksand at certain depth. The moment he slipped he searched for his helmet to affix it in the hook but the helmet wasn't on his head till his hand reached his head. He wanted to grab the helmet but it was lying far away from his arm’s distance and he was not able to proceed towards that direction. Mining mate quickly reacted upon the incident by extending the cable present at that location towards him and he was dragged out of the sump. He rested for a while at that pointed being appalled but made up his mind and started to exercise his duty.

                He took it as a challenge to improvise the area such that no one can ever face the situation that he has gone through. He made the senior authorities to register a near miss incident. He himself supervised the safety arrangements by constructing the barricades around the sumps. The reason here was simple that the plank was weakened in strength and finally got cracked by constant exposure to the water. The constant inspection and alertness could have averted the incident but this created awareness among the people and increased the safety aspects.

Wonderful Journey in a Mill

             Less than a week after joining into the industry, I was sent into the orientation program to get acquainted with the workings in the various locations of the industry. My first location was a newly developed mine that facilitated high mechanization with expansions in progress and having the beneficiation plant matching the production capacity of the mine. The mine head addressed us giving the brief introduction about the mine workings and handed us the schedule to pursue our objective. We being the mining people looked out the days of visits to the mines but we were astonished to find only two days to mine and lone day to mill. We weren’t expecting the mill visit thinking what is there in it for mining people.

Mill otherwise known as the beneficiation plant, where the extracted ore from the mines is separated into mineral and gangue while the former is advanced to further handling or direct use and the later for back-filling or left it in the form of dumps. The process commences from crushing of the extracted ore accompanied by the grinding of the sized product then separation of mineral in the froth flotation tanks for sulfide ores and concluding with separation of solids from liquids in the thickeners. Froth Flotation is the cardinal process used for the recovery of valuable minerals especially of the copper, zinc and lead bearing minerals.

As scheduled on the second day of the orientation program we were reluctant to have an insight on the working of the mill. The teachings of my mining machinery professor flashed through my mind about the various machines used in the mill and the way he taught, he crystallized the basic concepts of the machines. These thoughts made me to have the practical knowledge of the machines and we headed towards the mill. The first glimpse of the mill made me to think about the ribbons lurking in the circus watching the various conveyors coming out from top a building and landing at the bottom of another building.

Primary crusher was constructed in the mountain alongside the entrance of the mine to which we traveled from bottom through the tunnel and spiraling staircase to reach at the top to experience the gyratory crusher breaking down the ore. The sized product was carried by the conveyor located at the bottom of the crusher to make a stockpile for further crushing. To reach the stockpile we again needed to go through the swirling stairs and through the tunnel alongside conveyor to reach the top of that building. Stockpile was then carried by another conveyor to secondary and tertiary crushers i.e. the cone crusher to further reduce the size. If we would have taken the path of the conveyors we would have stuck in never ending circuits to which the material made its way through conveyor and we made through road to grinding section.

In the grinding section, to have clear view we had to climb up and we noticed the remarkable size of the rod mill and ball mill. The processes were crystal clear that material first entered into the rod mill followed by ball mill and then into hydro cyclone that whirls around the material to separate the heavier particles from lighter particles. Heavier particles are again sent to ball mill and the lighter particles to the froth flotation tank. One half of the tour made all the members in our group vexed and decided to discontinue but the spark of acquiring the full-fledged knowledge lit between us and we headed towards froth flotation plant.

The board outside the plant showed the safety equipment's we should be having on. We had all the equipment's except a mask which we managed through our handkerchiefs. The person explained the complex process of froth flotation in a very interesting manner. He elucidated the three stages in froth flotation i.e. roughing, scavenging & cleaning and the steps where reagents are mixed. It became a practical class of half an hour which we have never attended that attentively in our engineering life. The hot gases were flowing from beneath our feet that made us drench in our sweat and the never ending steps in the mill made the wonderful journey in the mill to a halt. When we were heading back to the office we were discussing about the whole trip in which we realized the journey being incomplete without the thickeners section. The lazy attitude that comes from our engineering life made us restrain from going back to the plant thus concluding the journey.

Milling is the integrated part of the mining industry as without the mill the extracted ore can’t be traded at high profits. Mining engineers should possess the idea of the primary crusher that makes them to comply with the size of the blasted ore. They should be well aware of the concentrate of mineral present in the ore for blending purposes. Mining engineers being the future General Manager’s and CEO’s need to have the basic idea of the workings in the every sector of the industry.

My Short Story: Personnel Protective Equipment

As the day passed, my colleague had conversation on his phone with his parents describing about the events of the day. To my curiosity when I was heeding I discovered that they were unaware of the basic protection equipment. When I had a chat with my friends belonging to other streams they too had a very little idea about this which led me to write a post on this topic.

The equipment's that are worn by the personnel to reduce the effect of hazard in their field of work are known as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). They can protect the individual from physical force, electric shocks, burning heat, airborne dust and bio-hazards. These are extensively used in the jobs related to occupational and safety purposes, in daily life and sports. In cricket the batsmen gets dressed up with helmet and pads to defend the ball which is thrown at high pace likewise in mines the personnel are required to wear helmet, gum boots, mask etc. which helps them from various hazardous conditions encountered in the mines.

Human brain is the essential element for the functioning of the body and is very much sensitive to the shocks or blows on the head. Helmets are used to cover the head and they annihilate the mechanical energy and preventing from penetration. The stones present on the drives can make walking a difficult task with bare foot or the boots. The safety boots are provided which protects the toe with a metal present inside the boot. Gum boots are used in the mines where poor drainage system or the heavy ingress of water is observed which make the drive muddy and loose. They are splendidly known as Wellington boots in the fashion world. Machines working in the mines produce lots of dust and noise.  The airborne dust produced during its transit or drilling can be inhaled by the person working in that region and at a long run it affects the respiratory system of the personnel and the noise can make the person go deaf. To forestall these things personnel have been provided with mask and ear muffs for being safe and sound. Some of the uncommon things in the mines are goggles to protect the eyes, and self rescuers for rescuing themselves from ambiance containing low oxygen percentage.

During my training period, I was provided with helmet, goggles, mask, ear muffs and gum boots while entering into the mine. I was very much casual while having them on. The first shock I acquired was when I advanced along a low heighted gallery and a rock bolt protruding out of the roof hit my helmet. I had stars flying around my head till the supervisor made me sit and gave me water to stabilize. Then after a while of rest, we moved on and I was very much careful but then we encountered watery region which was slippery too. I was assured that the water will not enter inside the gum boots and I wouldn’t slip off. While we were moving I was feeling cold feet which I thought of the water being cold but that kept on increasing then I realized that water has entered into the boot by a tiny hole and my foot was drenched and became heavy. The boot being itself heavy now the water added up the weight, it became difficult to walk with one foot lighter and another heavier.  When I reached the working face there were machines running making loud noise and for my goodness there was no problem with the ear muffs. While we were returning from the face we stopped in front of the ventilation door to rest as I was drenched with my own sweat and panting. As I was feeling uneasy inside the mask, I removed it and didn’t put it on. When my supervisor opened the ventilation door the air gushed in with the dust, my eyes were covered with goggles so that prevented from getting my red. But the fact that I removed my mask made me foolish as it made me sneeze quite a lot.

The lesson I learned during the training made me to check the PPE’s before wearing and should be careful though they are worn and never ever remove them till we reach the surface. Personnel Protective Equipments are used to save your life but the fact that if we be foolish while using these things and not be careful from our prospective it would be difficult to halt the accidents. Though we are using these there are many accidents happening in the mines that are related to not using the PPE’s properly. So there is only rule………

                              SAFETY FIRST, PRODUCTION MUST

Coal Regulatory Authority

Energy has the vital role to play in the development of the human beings to sustain with the ever changing environment. Industrial revolution created a major turnover in the use of energy resources. The energy mainly refers to the fossil fuels and electricity. Managing these resources is the key asset of the country. The global economy is affected by the production and consumption of these resources. To economize and manage energy resources there should be governors. Regulatory authorities have come up with this challenge to become the governors of the energy resources.

India has five ministries that are responsible for energy utilization. They are atomic energy, renewable, petroleum and natural gas, coal and power. The Atomic Energy Commission is part of the ministry and there are independent regulatory authorities for petroleum and natural gas and the power. The Office of Coal Controller as the name suggests has the power of controlling the coal utilization in the country. Lately regulatory body for coal is being planned which has come into effect due to the coal allocation scam or popularly known as Coalgate. Can regulator body be the substitute for the coal commissioner?

The Office of Coal Controller, one of the oldest offices of coal sector was established to have a government control over the coal production. The functions of this organization being stipulating and inspecting the grade and size of the coal, as an authority in the case of disputes between consumer and producer, managing the quality of the coal during loading of trucks, permission to grant opening or reopening of the coal mine or seam and providing financial support to coal operators for various purposes. This office was deregulated of the distribution and pricing of the coal in 1966. The distribution and allotment of the coal was taken up by the ministry of coal.

The arbitrary allocation of the captive coal blocks and the allegations of anomalies in coal block allocation have made the government to establish the Coal Regulatory Authority. The main functions of this regulator body are formulation of the price of the raw coal, washed coal and other by products, allocation of the coal blocks, improvising the technology of the mining operations and all the functions of the Coal Controller.

The regulatory body will be playing the main role in bringing in the competitiveness among the companies for e-auction for coal blocks and the trade margins, increasing the transparency of the allocation of the coal reserves. The prices of the coal will be determined by the producers but this body has to provide eye shot on the pricing. The long run disputes between CIL and NTPC over the fuel supply agreements will be resolved the regulatory body. The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs has approved the draft bill and the government has started to work on the establishment without the approval of the parliament through executive order. Coal regulatory authority having higher responsibilities than the OCC can be replaced as the governor of the coal sector. Till now government has not yet decided about making the OCC obsolete but as the Coal regulatory Bill get passed in the Parliament this will be a query to wonder on. 

Coal to Liquid Technology: An Alternative Source for Transportation

 About 96% of all energy used in the transport comes from petroleum. Increasing energy demand and rise in vehicle ownership lead to have an energy supply balance. In the world coal reserves are ten times more abundant and more evenly distributed. Can liquefying the coal be an alternative fuel source for transportation?

Coal Liquefaction is a process that has been around a long time. This technology was extensively used by Germans during the period of World War II. In 1960’s South Africa faced the world oil embargo during which they switched towards the coal liquefaction and they are producing 70% of the liquid fuel needs. Recently China had shifted its focus towards coal liquefaction and is been successful in implementing the direct liquefaction plants. India having some of the largest coal reserves in the world can liquefaction change the scenario of the Indian liquid fuel needs?

Coal liquefaction is a process that converts coal from a solid state to liquid fuels, to produce the substitutes of petroleum products. The conversion of coal to liquid fuel can be processed by various liquefaction processes but they are broadly classified into two types i.e. Direct Coal Liquefaction (DCL) and Indirect Coal Liquefaction (ICL).

Direct Coal Liquefaction was developed by Friedrich Bergius during the period of World War II and it is also known as Bergius Process. In this process, the dry coal is mixed with recycled solvent to form coal slurry which is subjected to high temperature and high pressure in the presence of hydrogen gas and catalyst. The liquid products that are produced are of low quality and they require further refining to achieve high grade fuel products. Various catalysts are used to improve the rates of conversion of the coal to liquid fuel. The direct processes that are processed in the companies at present is the modification and extension of the Bergius process.

Indirect Coal Liquefaction is the multi step process in which the first requires the gasification of coal to produce syngas (a mixture of CO and H₂ gas). The second constitutes of conversion of syngas into liquid fuels using one of these methods i.e. Fischer-Tropsch process or Methonal process. F-T process is the oldest ICL process where syngas is subjected to chemical refinement to produce liquid fuels in the presence of catalyst. In Methonal or Mobil process, the syngas is converted to methonal which is subsequently converted into liquid fuel over a catalyst. Initial syngas can be obtained from coal alone or from coal-biomass mixture.

These processes produce whole lot of products which include clean petroleum and diesel, synthetic waxes, lubricants, methonal and dimethyl ether.  These fuels are sulfur free, low in particulates and nitrogen oxides. One tonne of coal can yield almost one-half tonne of liquids. Process has been developed to use coal from low ranked lignite to high volatile bituminous coal. They can be used for power generation, transportation and cooking. The coal rich country which has high oil prices and concerned with increasing oil import price is best suitable for coal liquefaction process.

Coal liquefaction process is significant energy consumption process which at industrial scales requires multibillion dollar capital investment which presents a high investment risk. The life cycle of liquefaction process emits large amounts of greenhouse gas. The coal-biomass mixture has an advantage over pure coal which emits much lower greenhouse gas. There has been a pocket size effect of lowering the greenhouse gas through sequestration. The increase in coal mining will again result in environmental consequences.

India has a significant potential to invest in coal to liquid technology as there is an increasing demand of oil imports and the oil price reaching its pinnacle. India being one of the largest emitter of greenhouse gas, this process will further increase those emissions which will be the area of improvisation. In India, Oil India Limited has successfully tested the direct coal liquefaction technology in the Northern Coalfields Limited. Ministry of Coal has allotted two coal blocks in Talcher coalfields to M/s Strategic Energy Technology Systems Ltd. and Ramchandi Block to M/s Jindal Steel & Power Ltd. with production capacity of about 80,000 barrels of oil per day per project which are expected to commence by 2018. 

Civil and Mining Product: India’s longest rail tunnel

Engineer’s spree of developing the human skills to indulge themselves into making the sparkling changes in the society has got magnificent accomplishment.  Civil engineering deals with design and construction while mining engineering deals with excavation but when construction has to be dealt with excavation in underground; it’s time to step into a new field, Underground Space Technology. It deals with planning, design, construction and maintenance of underground structures. Construction of a tunnel is one of the challenges in this technology. Though there are very few tunnels in India, presently India is one of the emerging markets in tunneling projects.

In the recent times, India has accomplished its longest railway tunnel network named “Pir panjal Railway Tunnel”, one of the most challenging and marvelous project of Indian history. The 10.96 Km. long tunnel is the India’s first and Asia’s second longest railway tunnel connecting the Jammu Kashmir with other parts of India throughout the year. The methodology adopted for the construction of this tunnel was New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM) with latest technology in 3D monitoring system. This is the India’s first large scale project where NATM has been implemented. NATM is based on the concept whereby the surrounding ground itself becomes a load bearing structure through activation of a ring like body of supporting ground. It’s most suitable for soft ground excavation and where smooth profile can be obtained for establishing load bearing ring.

A Himalayan mountain in which the tunnel has been excavated consists of eight geological strata’s based on geological investigations. The condition of the rocks made them to adopt different techniques to excavate using tunnel excavator for soft ground, road header for rocks having Unconfined Compressive Strength less than 100 Mpa and drill & blast method for hard rocks. The first ever use of road header for excavation in India. The excavation area of the tunnel varied with the geological conditions and the final cross sectional area being 48 Sq. m. The total area of the tunnel was excavated in three parts i.e. top heading, benching and invert. For early completion of the project, the excavation was started from three faces each from either sides and third from adit towards north. The excavation sequence of NATM is:

1. Mobilization of the strength of rock mass to its maximum extent.
2. Installation of initial primary support.
3. 3D monitoring to assess the deformation in initial support    system.
4. Sequentially excavation, closure of invert and support system.
5. Finally applying the permanent lining.

The tunnel is almost straight having a height of 7.3m and width of 8.4m with highest ever overburden of about 1,100m. The adit and shaft were excavated to shorten the critical length of drive and to set apart the difficulties near portals. They were used for the maintenance and ventilation purpose during the operation and they will be serving as the escape routes during emergency conditions. The midpoint of the tunnel is heightened from either side to provide an excellent drainage system. The tunnel has been made waterproof and fire fighting system is provided. Adjacent to the rail track, 3m wide concrete road is constructed throughout the tunnel for maintenance and emergency purposes.

 Routine work proves to be unbearable because of the boredom it produces, that’s where challenges keep you active. This project too had its major challenges which were like slope stability near the portals, the geological conditions, high water ingress, restricted drill & blast due to existence of village over alignment of tunnel and low performance of road header. They have excellently overcome the challenges offered by the environment and the climate.

 Being India an emerging market in tunneling projects, India is having lots of projects going on and some of the highlighted projects are metro railways in New Delhi and under river tunnel in Kolkata. The technologies used in these new projects are turning the face of the engineering works in India making on par with that of the world class tunnels. 

Source: economictimes.com

Shale Gas, an energy innovation: India is willing to adopt

            India has been prominently consuming energy from coal, hydro, nuclear and from past few years by natural gas. India is the fourth largest energy consumer throughout the world though there is a critical shortage of electricity generation capacity. Now can this shale gas alter the fortune of India?

Past half a decade, analysts were foretelling that the US will be importing natural gas at an increasing rate as they will be drying out their own resources. The crackling accomplishment of the oil companies in the US in producing the shale gas resources at large extent has changed the doom of energy deficit country to a surplus one. Can this shale gas prove as a silver bullet to India as that in US?  A small insight about the shale gas would lead to the opinions.

Shale gas is unconventional source of natural gas found in shale formations. It is present in the form of bubbles in the impermeable shale rock. They are rich in organic matter and chemically it consists of methane. Shale gas has come into limelight due to technological advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.     

 The way to extract the shale gas is to vertically drill till it penetrates the shale rock and then make a channel in the shale formations parallel to the ground known as horizontal drilling. Water is mixed with sand and chemicals (Hydrochloric acid and carcinogens) and the mixture is injected at high pressure into these channels to create fractures which release shale gas. This is known as hydraulic fracturing or otherwise known as fracking. The efficiency of these works will mainly define the rate of production of shale gas.

In India the potential of extraction of shale gas is high. India being one of the largest consumers of oil and petroleum products imports more than half of oil and gas requirements. Shale gas production in India itself will truncate the increasing trade imports. This will lead India to substantially decrease its dependency on Middle East countries. The recent hikes in electricity price in India are affecting the public and the manufacturing companies. As the US have cutoff their electricity prices by shale gas production, India could be expecting the same in the coming years. The shale gas production can be effective in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions when compared to coal production though it refers to produce more than the conventional gas.

Positive side of this technology has had a great impact on India as an energy deficit country and is alluring towards investments in this sector. Every technology has its good and bad faces, so this technology too has its challenging issues which have to be improved to get the environmental nod. A large amount of water is required to be pumped into this borehole for fracking. India’s water scarcity condition can’t afford large amounts of water as one seventh of the world’s population is dependent on the 4% of the world’s water resources. For this, Indian authority has found a remedy and has assured of starting these projects in coastal areas and areas with high rainfall and water logging. With large of water comes large amounts of chemicals i.e. the deadly hydrochloric acid and carcinogens that would remain in borehole and can contaminate the ground water. An alternative way of fracking has been found by GasFrac of Alberta, Canada by using liquefied propane instead of mixture of water and chemicals.

The increasing no. of earthquakes has been eminent in the US after the shale gas production started. One of the theories suggests that it is due to water pushed back into the fault that tends to cause earthquake by slippage of fault. This is the area this technology has to be improvised further.

India has a long way to go before it can successfully extract shale gas. In India, shale gas will be targeted at Cambay basin, Assam Arakan basin, Damodar Valley, KG Basin and Cauvery basin. The estimates of shale gas reserves are estimated to be around 60 trillion cubic feet (TCF). Indian Oil Corporation, OIL, GAIL and RIL have started to invest in this sector in USA. Realizing the huge potential of shale gas reserves in India, Government of India is geared up to attract best companies for

its exploration purposes. It would entirely depend on the policy regulations made by the government realizing the issues of water, land etc for sustainable development.

Mining Engineering

From the period of Adam and Eve (Hypothetical), they have been utilizing stones for enormous purposes. Minerals were also discovered during the growing periods of the civilization but the extractions of these minerals were in a haphazard fashion.  It was the ancient Romans who were the developers of the large scale mining methods which created the interest among the citizens to learn and innovate the new ways of exploiting minerals. The interest of the people to acquire knowledge of mining guided towards introduction of a course as Mining Engineering.

Mining Engineering is a branch of engineering which involves the study of extraction of minerals theoretically and practically. There are 4 year B.Tech. programme in Mining Engineering, 5 year dual degree programmes i.e. B.Tech. in Mining Engineering & M.Tech. in Mining Engineering and B.Tech. Mining Engineering & MBA. The course structures are well planned and they give an in-depth knowledge of the subjects and tools as well as a solid foundation in the fundamentals. 

Engineering life starts with introductory subjects which give a brief insight of every branch. The core subjects of mining get rolling in the second stage of your engineering. When I was kid, I was fascinated to watch people with long tapes measuring the distances. Only later at university did I learn to use theodolite and levels known as mine surveying. These are used for measuring distances, slopes and heights precisely and accurately for keep the working in the mine going in a proper direction. Movie Kaala Pathar featuring Amitabh Bachchan shows consequences of the unsound work of mine surveying.

Drilling and blasting is the one of the major subject in the lives of mining people. The frequently asked question by the people would be aren't you afraid of the depth and explosives. The significant part of the technical interview revolves around this field. Various types and properties of explosives, drilling methods and equipment's are introduced in this topic.

Last couple years of engineering are the most important years in your life time. It consists of all the mining courses which guide you to choose their specialization in the final year for research. Mining methods is the subject in which the way to extract the mineral in an appropriate manner is taught. A pothole on the road resembles the surface mine in a vast area and way to have this pothole made at a larger extent is put forward in detailed way. The extraction at a considerable depth is done by underground mining methods.

Consider a kitchen without an exhaust system that’s the condition of the mine without a mechanical ventilator. Mine ventilation is a fabulous subject that deals with the environment in the mine i.e. the influence of gases produced in the mines, temperature, humidity and circulation of the air. This subject also acquaints you with equipment's that safeguard the people from varied environmental conditions, dealing with mine fires and emergency conditions.

As the reaction of a girl when you state those three beautiful words can’t be known that’s the same with the response of the rocks to the force applied on it. For the later one we have a medium to gain knowledge but the former it’s still obscure. Rock mechanics the only subject that makes you go nuts in your engineering life describes about the properties of rock and equipment's that have to be configured according to that of the nature of rocks.

The age when the people needed to extract the minerals manually have long gone and the machines have taken their place. As the biology student studies about the every nerve rooting from toe to head, mining student needs to study about the machine from the axle of a wheel to the body of the machine. Mining Machinery is the subject that keeps you busy with the machines. This subject includes the types of machines, working of the machines, safety aspects of the machines.

You plan a lot when you go to a weekend trip to have a successful and adventurous tour likewise a mine that needs to be running until the mineral exhausts needs to be planned. Mine planning and Economics gives an insight about which method would be least cost effective on the type of deposit available. There wouldn't be any business that would be working without any profit; mining too is a business that needs profit to move ahead.

There are many more course in this field like Mine Legislation, Mine Safety etc. The course is designed in such a manner that the students choose their specialization in the final year for research. The training's, excursions, surveying camp keep you involved throughout your engineering. There lies lots of fun in these four years if you study at your interest. At the end of four years some would be going to reputed companies, some would want to learn more and delve deeper by pursuing masters.

Why Mining?

Why Mining or why should I opt Mining Engineering never came to my mind when I was beginning to pursue my engineering career. At that moment I was thinking of the possibilities to be different from the people around me who are pursuing the most common profession (Like IT, Computer Science, Electrical, Civil and Mechanical). The working of my elder sister’s profession made me to think about these possibilities as she was working in front of the computer for long hours without any physical work. I wanted my career in a profession where my neurons would be drained out of energy and my body doesn't need any extra amount of work to be done after my working hours.

This question again hit me during my placement season where the interviewers from all the mining companies wanted to know why I was keenly interested in working in the mining industry. Giving a serious thought to this wondering question, I found out that this profession provides the 3^rd highest pay packages after the petroleum and the chemical industry. Mining doesn't only mean that we have to work in the field; it constitutes of various other options like being a consultant, bank financier working for the company etc. This profession was ideal one for me as it included planning and field work. Although after a couple of decades there will be robotic machines working in the field leaving the man to work on the computer. The most important thing is that we should be enjoying the work we are performing, if there is no happiness in it then you will never taste the satisfaction in your life. If most of the people are pitching towards the non basic industries then someone should raise to kick forward the basic industry as they are the ones who are in dire need of the basic products.

I am a Mining Engineering Graduate from Indian School of Mines Dhanbad. I was selected in a reputed Multinational Company through campus recruitment. I have planned to work in the company which will give a real time experience that will be helpful for pursuing my masters in states in future. In this time I would be getting focused towards the field of specialization in masters.

There is a saying that classroom learning is just to get past through the degree and the experience you acquire will be by facing the real time problems. The learning will help you to manage the problems. You should choose a main stream which provides you too many options in your career.  As in these you will be facing failures in most and some which lead you to success. You should be able to convert this success into your own growth. There will be lots of side streams that you will be influenced with. I play basketball, I am at my first stage of my writing and I have keen interest towards the social service & travelling and who knows how time will change the fondness towards the side stream works. 

Mining industry is one of the basic industries.  As water is to a man, mining is to the world. It is a main line where you will head towards being a manager of a mine or a consultant or a tunnel project manager etc. You can be one among them paving a way towards your own success. Mining industry needs people to come forward and take the challenge to improvise the safety and technology in mines.

All the very best to all the students who are going to opt Bachelors in Mining Engineering or Diploma in Mining Engineering. The biggest request would be that to choose a field which you love the most as you will feel a different level of satisfaction in carrying out your work and you will never regret your decision in your old age.