As consumers, we praise the final product and rarely think about where it originally came from. For example, a light bulb consists of a glass covering, and metal filament that resists the flow of electricity. Resistance to the current causes dissipation of energy as visible light. Besides taking mining engineers for granted, we also form misconceptions about them. They are not a group of greedy businesspersons seeking to exploit our natural resources, nor a union of laborers with shovels in their hands.
Mining engineers embrace the idea of preserving the environment while maintaining efficiency.
We try to extract mineral and energy resources from the earth without disrupting the natural setting. We drill holes, create fractures, and inject chemicals or solutions in one hole. Then we let the chemicals permeate the ore body. Finally, we retrieve the mineral bearing solutions from another hole. The advantage of extracting the minerals in its original place is that it limits the amount of waste rock that mining engineers must mine to obtain the desired minerals.