Program Overview

Introduction to the Mining Engineering Program

The Mining Engineering program at Queen's University is designed to teach students how to improve the safety, efficiency, and sustainability of mining processes and operations. Students will study a wide range of disciplines involved in locating, extracting, refining, and disposing of mineral and metal products and by-products.

What You'll Learn

To be a mining engineer, you need to have a broad range of knowledge. In this program, you'll learn about every aspect of work that goes into a mining project - from the initial discovery stage to marketing the final product. You will also learn basic electrical, civil, geological, mechanical, and chemical engineering concepts. Additionally, you will learn about the significant social and environmental responsibilities pushing mining forward, including:

• Economic extraction of natural resources
• Social responsibility
• Energy, climate change, and carbon footprints
• Environmental protection
• Health and safety

Hands-on Learning

As a mining engineering student, you will have the chance to enter the world of a mineral processing plant in virtual reality (VR). Our innovative VR tours help familiarize our students with the equipment and scale of mineral processing plants. Further into the program, our students use VR technology to practice basic plant troubleshooting. With on-campus labs including a rock mechanics laboratory, a mine environment laboratory, computer planning facilities, and several mineral processing laboratories, we encourage hands-on learning.

Program Options

Upper-year students will have the opportunity to focus their studies in one of our three options:

• Mining Engineering: Graduates will be prepared for designing, operating, and managing a mining operation. Topics covered in this option include:
  • Mine planning & management
  • Underground & open pit design
  • Mineral economics & finance
  • Rock mechanics
  • Mine ventilation
  • Drilling & explosives
  • Health & safety
  • Geostatistics
• Mineral Processing and Environmental Engineering: Graduates will be prepared to design, operate, and control the plants that treat mined ore to produce a valuable product for market. Topics covered in this option include:
  • Process control
  • Physical separation
  • Flotation
  • Mineral extraction
  • Hydrometallurgy
• Mine Mechanical Engineering: Graduates will be prepared to understand heavy and specialized equipment applications in the mining and construction industry and are capable of designing, modifying, and maintaining this equipment. Topics covered in this option include:
  • Computer applications
  • Communications
  • Equipment design and manufacture
  • Automation and robotics
  • Instrumentation technology
  • Equipment maintenance

Skills You'll Learn

• Mining engineering
• Mine-mechanical engineering
• Mineral processing and environmental engineering
• Industrial equipment design and heavy equipment maintenance
• Mine-design, planning, and evaluation
• Drilling and blasting, and explosives technology
• Plant and process design
• Energy efficiency and management
• Automation, robotics, and computer applications

Course Highlights

• Design and Planning
• Drilling and Blasting
• Mining and Sustainability
• Chemical Extraction of Metals
• Mineral Industry Economics
• Equipment Reliability and Maintenance
• Geostatistics
• Geomechanics
• Process Engineering
• Automatic Controls

Admission and Application

The Mining Engineering Program is a discipline within our common core program. Apply to general engineering, and at the end of first year, you are guaranteed your program of choice.

Prepare for Your Future

Mining engineering is a career full of opportunities for adventure and travel. As the largest mining department in Canada, and among the largest in the world, our alumni account for more than 25% of all Canadian-graduated mining and mineral processing engineers. Our program will prepare you for careers in the minerals industry and related environmental and technological fields.