The McGill mining program is a coop program, which means that students not only need class credits to graduate but also 12 months of coop work experience. The first two years of my undergraduate studies were particularly hard to land an internship. The mining job market wasn’t at its best and commodity prices were falling. With hard work and the right skill set I finally signed my first contract with the Matagami Mine division of Glencore.

I finished writing my final exams at the end of April and in early May I was already packing my bags for my next adventure. I left the city early on Saturday to arrive 8 hours later in the little northern town of Matagami. It was my first experience ever working in a mine, so I was wasn’t too sure what to expect.

On my first week, I filled in my steel-toed boots, put on my coveralls and headed to the underground. It’s easy to know if mining is meant for you or not: you either love it or hate it. In my case, being underground felt like being in a different world and I loved it! It was fascinating to see how huge the excavations, the trucks, and the stopes were. Even though the mine is in operation since 2013, which is relatively recent (some mines are 100 years old!), it’s already quite deep. It takes about 30 to 40 minutes to get to the deepest face in the mine that is 750 meters deep.

I was hired as an intern in the engineering department to work with the team of surveyors. The team and I would spend the morning surveying up to 7 different faces in the mine. Because of that, I was exposed to all sorts of activities underground. I would encounter the Jumbo man drilling in preparation for a blast, the bolters that are bolting a newly excavated face of the mine to make it safe to work under. One thing that is very useful when underground is to spend time communicating with the miners. Showing interest in their work and asking questions was beneficial for me to learn about the challenges they face and to understand that an engineering design should be feasible to execute safely.

After the survey is done, we would use the afternoon to develop AutoCAD plans based on the data gathered underground. These plans are used by engineers, technicians, and supervisors and are essential for the next round of operations.

My stage was a great learning experience. As an engineering student, you mostly learn the technical aspects and everything is very theoretical. Seeing how a mine actually works gives a lot of meaning to the theory learned in the classroom. It is also crucial, as engineers,  to understand how the operations are carried out in the underground and what challenges the miners face.