Industrial engineers work in a wide variety of businesses and industries, including banks, construction and transportation firms, government agencies, hospitals, and public utilities. Materials engineering deals with the structure, properties, production, and uses of various materials. Materials engineers work with both metallic and nonmetallic substances. They try to improve existing materials and develop new uses for them, as well as to develop new materials to meet specific needs. Mining and metallurgical engineering are major subdivisions of materials engineering.
Mining engineers work closely with geologists to locate and appraise deposits of minerals.
They decide how to remove the ore from the ground as cheaply and efficiently as possible. Mining engineers have to know about civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering in order to plan shafts and tunnels, ventilate mines, and select mining machinery. Metallurgical engineering deals with separating metals from their ores and preparing them for use. In extractive metallurgy, engineers remove metals from their ores and refine them to a pure state. Engineers in physical metallurgy develop methods for converting refined metals into useful finished products.