Most of the mine jobs require employees to work underground. Underground production and development miners constitute the majority of jobs available with the mines. The largest number of employees at a mine work as underground production or development miner. The prime responsibilities of the underground mine workers are to drill, blast, operate mining machinery and perform related duties to extract desired minerals from the underground mines. They also have to construct tunnels, passageways and shafts to alleviate mining operations.
The main duties of an underground mine worker include setting up and operating drills and drilling machines to produce a designated pattern of blasting holes. They also operate diamond drills or other specialized drills such as raise boring machinery to produce underground passageways or test geological formations. Underground mine workers also set up and operate mining machinery to shear coal, rock or ore from the working face. They are also responsible for load explosives, set fuses, and detonate explosives to produce desired blasting patterns and rock fragmentation in underground mines.
There are some specialized jobs available in underground mines such operating scooptram, load-haul-dump (LHD) machine or mucking machine to load and haul ore from stopes, drifts and draw points to ore passes. Underground mine workers are also expected to perform duties required to ensure safety and to support the mining advance.