Hi, Im from Australia, ive been working in the mining industry here for about 5 years.

Im wanting to come to the uk and im trying to find out what the average weekly/yearly income is for a mobile plant operator (dump truck, water cart etc).

Also could someone please tell me what the main job search website is in the uk for mining.

Thanks in advance for your time.

How Do's

You're unlikely to find that kind of info here, as we're mostly into exploring old mines.

However I have heard that the fellas on top dollar in the Boulby potash mine are pulling down about £50k, mind you the tax man (fehh ptui) will want his wedge.

Stick around though, more folks might have better info than me!

---

Thank you for your information.

Anyone with info please keep the post's coming.

Cheers

Dump truck driver is about £8-£10 an hour.excovator about £11-£13 an hour.with water bowsers most quarry's here use tractors and tanks.but our lads just jump on it as and when.We have gone more towards mobile crushers and screens so we use the tractor for fuel bowser too! 🙂

---

A bit of information about Australian mining is i work 2 weeks on straight and 1 week off, rate of pay is around $40 AUD per hour with no overtime bonus, all 12 hour days so we do 84 hours in the first and second weeks (160 hrs total) and 7 days solid off.

How is the uk mining different from Australian?

Also if someone is able to help me out on a website for for looking for mining work it would be apriciated.

Cheers

I think one of the main differences is that you have a mining industry and we don't.
We have very little remaining now, plenty of spare labour so wages are lower than you are used to.
I think a lot of UK mining people have gone to Australia to find work. Certainly in underground mining, your wages are very high and there is a shortage of skilled men.

I'd follow that by commenting that my experience at Combe Down would indicate that the little remaining UK mining is being largely carried out by older men who have been excluded by Australian immigration age restrictions!

Add in a handful of skilled and a larger number of semi-skilled East Europeans working on a contract basis and evading tax more-or-less blatantly, and that's about it.

Plant operators are really part of the civils industry, some of them happen to work in the small number of remaining quarries; but civils is dead in the gutter, has been for some years and isn't set to recover anytime soon ( whatever is said about fantasy projects like HSR2 and entrenched planning beaurocracies like Cross Rail ) and there is a substantial over-supply of any construction trade you care to mention, from various sources.

I just aim to retire before Dhimmi Dave lets in 70 million Turks...

---

First i would like to say thank you all for your information.

Secondly what would someone like me be able to do with my mining exp over there? Is there anything i can do with my heavy machienery exp for a decent amount of coin or should i consider switching profession whilst im there.

Thanks again in advance for your information.

It may be worth your while looking at Angel Mining if you are after bigger money. It would mean working in Greenland while based in the uk; working a 6:3 Week FIFO rota. Scooptram will have better info on that one.

let's not beat about the bush. The UK has severe structural unemployment and immigrants are still flooding in for purely political reasons.

The construction industry is in a severely depressed state, apart from anything else it is drawing much of its labour now via agencies recruiting in Eastern Europe at completely inadequate pay rates. There is a system of registration for plant operators which means that if you haven't got the necessary logbook with the suitable hours filled in, you can't get a job as an operator, full stop.

You won't get a job in a mining context because the general oversupply of labour means that recruitment processes have largely broken down or been abandoned, and word-of-mouth rules.

I gave up trying to make a living in this country years ago and work in the offshore industry. Again, if you can afford to spend around 1500 pounds in training and spend the next two or three years flogging round the agency circuit, spending most of your time out of work networking like crazy, good luck. I did it by chasing up old contacts from the early 80s and it took me about 3 years to make a living at it, although it's paid off in the long run.

People who are young enough with worthwhile skills are fleeing by the plane-load.

it's that simple

---

Sadly, I have to agree with Derrickman. You would be wasting your time coming here with good intentions. You could probably come for an extended holiday and earn some casual cash working in bars etc. but unless you were incredibly lucky, you would not get into 'real' work, especially for decent money.

Les

Around £22K to £28K gross p.a. working an 11 hour variable shift pattern (c37hr week) - and being fully qualified with experience (China Clay industry). Many these roles are sub contracted though. If you are lucky maybe 1 or 2 positions are advertised in Cornwall each year - But as said, all the visa stuff etc maybe a problem as most of these jobs are filled from Local workers.

---