Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining Operate underground loading or moving machine to load or move coal, ore, or rock using shuttle or mine car or conveyors. Equipment may include power shovels, hoisting engines equipped with cable-drawn scraper or scoop, or machines equipped with gathering arms and conveyor.
Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining is Also Know as
In different settings, Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining is titled as
- Coal Hauler Operator
- Equipment Operator
- Load Haul Dump Operator (LHD Operator)
- Loader Operator
- Loading Machine Operator
- Miner Operator
- Production Miner
- Ram Car Operator
- Shuttle Car Operator
- Underground Miner
Education and Training of Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining
Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining
Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.
Education Required for Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining
These occupations usually require a high school diploma.
Degrees Related to Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining
Training Required for Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining
Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining in different industries are
- Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators
- Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining
- Hoist and Winch Operators
- Continuous Mining Machine Operators
- Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders
- Crane and Tower Operators
- Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators
- Pile Driver Operators
- Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand
- Maintenance Workers, Machinery
- Conveyor Operators and Tenders
- Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists
- Mobile Heavy Equipment Mechanics, Except Engines
- Riggers
- Rail Car Repairers
- Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers
- Helpers--Extraction Workers
- Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operators
- Logging Equipment Operators
- Machine Feeders and Offbearers
What Do Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining do?
- Pry off loose material from roofs and move it into the paths of machines, using crowbars.
- Move trailing electrical cables clear of obstructions, using rubber safety gloves.
- Drive machines into piles of material blasted from working faces.
- Operate levers to move conveyor booms or shovels so that mine contents such as coal, rock, and ore can be placed into cars or onto conveyors.
- Clean hoppers, and clean spillage from tracks, walks, driveways, and conveyor decking.
- Oil, lubricate, and adjust conveyors, crushers, and other equipment, using hand tools and lubricating equipment.
- Replace hydraulic hoses, headlight bulbs, and gathering-arm teeth.
- Stop gathering arms when cars are full.
- Advance machines to gather material and convey it into cars.
- Signal workers to move loaded cars.
- Observe and record car numbers, carriers, customers, tonnages, and grades and conditions of material.
- Notify switching departments to deliver specific types of cars.
- Inspect boarding and locking of open-top box cars and wedging of side-drop and hopper cars to prevent loss of material in transit.
- Clean, fuel, service, and perform safety checks on all equipment, and repair and replace parts as necessary.
- Control conveyors that run the entire length of shuttle cars to distribute loads as loading progresses.
- Direct other workers to move stakes, place blocks, position anchors or cables, or move materials.
- Drive loaded shuttle cars to ramps and move controls to discharge loads into mine cars or onto conveyors.
- Examine roadway and clear obstructions from the path of travel.
- Guide and stop cars by switching, applying brakes, or placing scotches, or wooden wedges, between wheels and rails.
- Handle high voltage sources and hang electrical cables.
- Maintain records of materials moved.
- Measure, weigh, or verify levels of rock, gravel, or other excavated material to prevent equipment overloads.
- Monitor loading processes to ensure that materials are loaded according to specifications.
- Move mine cars into position for loading and unloading, using pinchbars inserted under car wheels to position cars under loading spouts.
- Observe hand signals, grade stakes, or other markings when operating machines.
- Open and close bottom doors of cars to dump contents.
- Push or ride cars down slopes, or hook cars to cables and control cable drum brakes, to ease cars down inclines.
- Read written instructions or confer with supervisors about schedules and materials to be moved.
Qualities of Good Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Tools Used by Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining
- Bucket belt conveyors
- Cable drawn scrapers
- Cap lamps
- Channel lock pliers
- Claw hammers
- Cleaning scrapers
- Conveyor belt systems
- Crowbars
- Diesel shuttle cars
- Dust suppression systems
- Electric shuttle cars
- Electric switch controls
- Filter conveyor belts
- Gathering-arm machines
- Grease dispensing guns
- Hand grease guns
- Hearing protection plugs
- Hydraulic valve controls
- Mining conveyor systems
- Mobile radios
- Multipurpose screwdrivers
- Oil guns
- Payloaders
- Pinch bars
- Portable fire extinguishers
- Power shovels
- Protective glasses
- Protective respirators
- Ratchet sets
- Reflective vests
- Rock breaking chisels
- Safety gloves
- Self-rescuers
- Sledgehammers
- Socket wrench sets
- Soil bucket chisels
- Steel-toed boots
- Trencher chisels
- Underground mining bulldozer
- Underground mining excavators
- Underground mining loaders
- Utility knives
Technology Skills required for Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining
- Automated systems software
- Inventory management systems
- Maintenance management software
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Windows
- Mine maintenance software
- Work time accounting software