Mining Engineering study guide
Mining Engineering · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) exam in Mining and Mineral Processing is a discipline-specific licensure exam administered by NCEES. It is designed for engineers who have gained a minimum of four years of post-college work experience in mining or mineral processing and who are pursuing professional engineer licensure through a state or territorial licensing board. The exam tests for a minimum level of competency in the discipline, using multiple-choice questions that require applying engineering principles to practical mining and mineral processing problems. NCEES offers more than 20 different PE exams, and this is one of them. To prepare, candidates should first confirm their state board's approval and registration requirements, then build a study plan around the exam's published topic areas, using the NCEES exam specifications and reference materials. Because exam-specific details are not currently available on the NCEES page, candidates should verify format, duration, and scoring directly with NCEES and their licensing board before registering. Topics on this exam: Mining and Mineral Processing (official domain list not available from source). The Mining Engineering study guide has 1 section and about 368 words.
01Mining and Mineral Processing
Mining and Mineral Processing tests how an orebody becomes a saleable product. Expect questions on cut-off grade, mine dilution, comminution, separation selectivity, and metallurgical balances. The exam rewards candidates who can link geological grade, mining method, and plant performance numerically. Cut-off grade is the grade at which the value of contained metal equals mining, processing, and rehabilitation costs; material below it is waste if no alternative use.
368 words, about 2 minMore study resources for Mining Engineering
- Practice questionsIn bench blasting, what is the primary purpose of a stemming column placed above the explosive charge in a blast hole?
- FlashcardsBond work index. Specific energy parameter Wi from the Bond ball mill test; used in W = 10·Wi·(1/√P80 − 1/√F80) to estimate grinding energy in kWh per short ton.
- Cheat sheetBond work index: W = 10·Wi·(1/√P80 − 1/√F80), where W is specific energy in kWh/short ton and P80, F80 are 80% passing sizes in µm; Wi is determined by locked-cycle Bond ball mill test.
- Key termsOre Reserve. The portion of a measured or indicated mineral resource that can be economically and legally extracted at the time of reporting, after applying mining, metallurgical, economic, and regulatory modifying factors.
- Study planMap the full Mining and Mineral Processing domain into a personal syllabus covering geology and orebody characterization, rock mechanics and ground control, drilling and blasting, surface and underground mining methods, ventilation, mine dewatering, materials handling, and mineral processing flowsheets.
- Common mistakesCandidates memorize the recovery formula but never practise the two-product mass balance, so they plug the circuit feed into the concentrate term without accounting for the recycle stream.
- Exam-day guidePrint or download the confirmation the provider issues for your sitting and check that the name matches your ID exactly.