Mill and Smelter Workers

The treatment of ore demands another set of skills, and thus, another group of specialized operators are on the job to watch over the ball mills, flotation tanks and other machinery. Assayers and chemists are also on hand to carry out the analysis of samples for the control of the milling and mining operations.

When the metal concentrates are shipped out for refining, yet another team of workers comes on the scene — furnacemen, smelting equipment operators and refinery operators, to name a few.

Computerized “programmable logic controllers” are common in most mills and smelters, so operators are required to monitor a whole sequence of operations from a control console that keeps tabs on what is happening in various parts of the plant.

Finally, the gold, copper or other metal is ready for shipping, making the shippers the last workers in the unbroken line of people who discovered, mined and processed it.