... of custody, dispatch, lab status tracking, assay receipt, and QA/QC review. • Develop ... Required : • Bachelor's degree in Geological Engineering, Mining Engineering, Geology, Earth ...
... of custody, dispatch, lab status tracking, assay receipt, and QA/QC review. • Develop ... Required : • Bachelor's degree in Geological Engineering, Mining Engineering, Geology, Earth ...
Assay Lab Mining information
What are assay lab jobs in mining?
Assay lab jobs in mining involve analyzing mineral samples to determine the composition and concentration of valuable elements, such as gold, silver, or copper. These professionals use scientific techniques and equipment to conduct tests and ensure that mining operations are extracting profitable materials. The results from assay labs help mining companies make decisions about exploration, extraction, and processing. Typical roles include assay technicians, laboratory analysts, and lab supervisors, all of whom work to maintain accuracy and safety standards.
What are some common challenges faced by professionals working in an assay lab within the mining industry?
Professionals in assay labs for mining often face challenges such as maintaining strict accuracy and precision when analyzing mineral samples, as results directly impact operational decisions and compliance. They must also work with potentially hazardous chemicals and adhere to stringent safety protocols. Additionally, managing tight turnaround times and large sample volumes can be demanding, especially when supporting active exploration or production sites. Collaboration with geologists, mine engineers, and production teams is essential to ensure that results are correctly interpreted and integrated into the wider mining operations.
What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as an Assay Lab Mining Technician, and why are they important?
To thrive as an Assay Lab Mining Technician, you need a solid background in chemistry, laboratory procedures, and sample analysis, often supported by a relevant degree or technical certification. Familiarity with analytical instruments such as atomic absorption spectrometers, ICP-OES, and laboratory information management systems (LIMS) is typically required. Attention to detail, problem-solving abilities, and strong organizational skills help ensure accuracy and efficiency in sample processing. These skills and qualities are vital for delivering reliable assay results that inform mining operations and maintain regulatory compliance.
What is the difference between Assay Lab Mining vs Geologist?
| Aspect | Assay Lab Mining | Geologist |
|---|---|---|
| Required Credentials | Certification in laboratory techniques, mining safety, and possibly a degree in geology or related field | Bachelor's or higher in geology or earth sciences, often with field experience |
| Work Environment | Laboratory setting within mining operations, focusing on sample analysis | Fieldwork and office, studying geological formations and mineral deposits |
| Industry Usage | Commonly employed in mining companies for sample testing and quality control | Used across exploration, environmental assessment, and resource evaluation |
Assay Lab Mining specialists focus on analyzing mineral samples in a lab environment, ensuring quality and compliance. Geologists, on the other hand, study earth formations and mineral deposits in the field and office. Both roles are essential in mining but serve different functions within the industry.
What are popular job titles related to Assay Lab Mining jobs in Utah? For Assay Lab Mining jobs in Utah, the most frequently searched job titles are:
What job categories do people searching Assay Lab Mining jobs in Utah look for? The top searched job categories for Assay Lab Mining jobs in Utah are:
What cities in Utah are hiring for Assay Lab Mining jobs? Cities in Utah with the most Assay Lab Mining job openings:

Full-time
Posted 28 days ago
Job description
Job Summary:
Mariana Minerals is a software-first, vertically integrated minerals company focused on supplying critical minerals for modern energy and defense technologies. They are seeking a Drilling Engineer, Exploration & Resource Automation to develop and implement automated drilling and resource workflows, translating real-world processes into scalable software tools. The role involves collaboration with software teams and technical users to enhance drilling efficiency and data management.
Responsibilities:
• Work directly with the software team to design, test, and improve MarianaOS tools for drilling, exploration, sampling, QA/QC, assay review, and resource modeling.
• Translate field drilling workflows into product requirements, user stories, data models, automation logic, and practical software specifications.
• Help define how technical users should plan drill programs, capture field data, track sample movement, validate assays, and reconcile results inside MarianaOS.
• Build and refine workflows that reduce manual spreadsheet work, improve data quality, and make geological and drilling decisions faster and more auditable.
• Serve as the domain expert connecting geologists, drillers, resource modelers, field teams, and software engineers.
• Help develop automated systems for drill planning, target prioritization, hole design, drill schedule tracking, contractor coordination, and field progress reporting.
• Support workflows for greenfield exploration, brownfield drilling, infill drilling, resource conversion, confirmation drilling, and follow-up drilling.
• Design repeatable logic for comparing planned versus actual drilling outcomes, including drilled meters, productivity, sample recovery, deviations, delays, costs, and geological results.
• Identify opportunities to automate recurring decisions and checks across drilling campaigns, including sample interval validation, QA/QC flags, assay status tracking, and field issue escalation.
• Partner with technical and software teams to turn field learnings into product improvements that can scale across future Mariana Minerals projects.
• Help define and automate end-to-end sample workflows, including sample interval design, labeling, chain of custody, dispatch, lab status tracking, assay receipt, and QA/QC review.
• Develop requirements for automated QA/QC checks involving standards, blanks, duplicates, check assays, contamination risks, sample swaps, missing intervals, and out-of-sequence results.
• Review drilling and sampling processes in the field and convert those observations into better systems, forms, controls, dashboards, and alerts.
• Support automated comparison of drill results against geologic interpretations, resource assumptions, block model predictions, and mineralized domains.
• Help develop drillhole-to-block-model reconciliation workflows covering lithology, stratigraphy, mineralized intervals, grade, thickness, alteration, and spatial continuity.
• Define variance thresholds, validation logic, exception reports, and follow-up drilling recommendations.
• Use assay results, field observations, and model outputs to identify areas where the model is confirmed, contradicted, or needs geological true-up.
• Help create repeatable workflows that connect exploration drilling, resource estimation, mine planning, and project development decisions.
• Act as a bridge between field users and software developers, ensuring tools are technically sound, usable, and grounded in real exploration and drilling workflows.
• Test new MarianaOS features with real project data, identify edge cases, document gaps, and provide actionable feedback to the software team.
• Develop templates, process maps, standard operating procedures, dashboards, and training materials for drilling and sampling workflows.
• Communicate clearly with geology, resource modeling, operations, product team, engineering, and leadership teams.
• Support drilling, exploration, sampling, and resource definition workflows for the Copper One project, a sedimentary copper deposit in the Lisbon Valley district of southeast Utah.
• Spend time at site to understand actual field execution, contractor workflows, sample handling, geological controls, and operational constraints.
Qualifications:
Required:
• Bachelor's degree in Geological Engineering, Mining Engineering, Geology, Earth Sciences, or a related technical discipline.
• 3+ years of experience in drilling, exploration, mine geology, resource definition, resource modeling, and technical field programs.
• Strong understanding of drilling workflows, sample collection, assay data, QA/QC procedures, geological interpretation, and resource estimation concepts.
• Ability to work with drillhole data, sample intervals, assay results, geologic sections, block models, and field operating data.
• Experience with greenfield exploration, brownfield drilling, infill drilling, resource conversion, grade control, or development-stage drilling campaigns.
• Experience with geological block models, resource models, drillhole databases, 3D geological modeling workflows, and resource classification concepts.
• Experience with tools such as Leapfrog, Vulcan, Datamine, Deswik, Surpac, Micromine, acQuire, MX Deposit, GIS platforms, or similar systems.
• Experience defining QA/QC rules, assay validation processes, reconciliation reports, drilling dashboards, or data governance workflows.
• Strong interest in automation, process optimization, and building better systems for technical mining and exploration workflows.
• Ability to communicate effectively with both technical geology/drilling teams and software/product teams.
• Comfort translating messy field workflows into clear requirements, process maps, rules, dashboards, checks, or software specifications.
• Willingness to be based within the vicinity of the Lisbon Valley / Monticello-Moab, Utah project area and spend meaningful time near the project.
Preferred:
• Experience with sediment-hosted copper, sandstone-hosted copper, red-bed copper, stratiform copper, or similar deposits is helpful, but not required.
• Experience creating products, internal tools, technical solutions, dashboards, workflows, or software-enabled processes is a meaningful asset.
Company:
Mariana Minerals is a software-first critical minerals company that supplies materials essential for modern energy. Founded in 2022, the company is headquartered in Houston, USA, with a team of 51-200 employees. The company is currently Growth Stage.
Mariana Minerals is a software-first, vertically integrated minerals company focused on supplying critical minerals for modern energy and defense technologies. They are seeking a Drilling Engineer, Exploration & Resource Automation to develop and implement automated drilling and resource workflows, translating real-world processes into scalable software tools. The role involves collaboration with software teams and technical users to enhance drilling efficiency and data management.
Responsibilities:
• Work directly with the software team to design, test, and improve MarianaOS tools for drilling, exploration, sampling, QA/QC, assay review, and resource modeling.
• Translate field drilling workflows into product requirements, user stories, data models, automation logic, and practical software specifications.
• Help define how technical users should plan drill programs, capture field data, track sample movement, validate assays, and reconcile results inside MarianaOS.
• Build and refine workflows that reduce manual spreadsheet work, improve data quality, and make geological and drilling decisions faster and more auditable.
• Serve as the domain expert connecting geologists, drillers, resource modelers, field teams, and software engineers.
• Help develop automated systems for drill planning, target prioritization, hole design, drill schedule tracking, contractor coordination, and field progress reporting.
• Support workflows for greenfield exploration, brownfield drilling, infill drilling, resource conversion, confirmation drilling, and follow-up drilling.
• Design repeatable logic for comparing planned versus actual drilling outcomes, including drilled meters, productivity, sample recovery, deviations, delays, costs, and geological results.
• Identify opportunities to automate recurring decisions and checks across drilling campaigns, including sample interval validation, QA/QC flags, assay status tracking, and field issue escalation.
• Partner with technical and software teams to turn field learnings into product improvements that can scale across future Mariana Minerals projects.
• Help define and automate end-to-end sample workflows, including sample interval design, labeling, chain of custody, dispatch, lab status tracking, assay receipt, and QA/QC review.
• Develop requirements for automated QA/QC checks involving standards, blanks, duplicates, check assays, contamination risks, sample swaps, missing intervals, and out-of-sequence results.
• Review drilling and sampling processes in the field and convert those observations into better systems, forms, controls, dashboards, and alerts.
• Support automated comparison of drill results against geologic interpretations, resource assumptions, block model predictions, and mineralized domains.
• Help develop drillhole-to-block-model reconciliation workflows covering lithology, stratigraphy, mineralized intervals, grade, thickness, alteration, and spatial continuity.
• Define variance thresholds, validation logic, exception reports, and follow-up drilling recommendations.
• Use assay results, field observations, and model outputs to identify areas where the model is confirmed, contradicted, or needs geological true-up.
• Help create repeatable workflows that connect exploration drilling, resource estimation, mine planning, and project development decisions.
• Act as a bridge between field users and software developers, ensuring tools are technically sound, usable, and grounded in real exploration and drilling workflows.
• Test new MarianaOS features with real project data, identify edge cases, document gaps, and provide actionable feedback to the software team.
• Develop templates, process maps, standard operating procedures, dashboards, and training materials for drilling and sampling workflows.
• Communicate clearly with geology, resource modeling, operations, product team, engineering, and leadership teams.
• Support drilling, exploration, sampling, and resource definition workflows for the Copper One project, a sedimentary copper deposit in the Lisbon Valley district of southeast Utah.
• Spend time at site to understand actual field execution, contractor workflows, sample handling, geological controls, and operational constraints.
Qualifications:
Required:
• Bachelor's degree in Geological Engineering, Mining Engineering, Geology, Earth Sciences, or a related technical discipline.
• 3+ years of experience in drilling, exploration, mine geology, resource definition, resource modeling, and technical field programs.
• Strong understanding of drilling workflows, sample collection, assay data, QA/QC procedures, geological interpretation, and resource estimation concepts.
• Ability to work with drillhole data, sample intervals, assay results, geologic sections, block models, and field operating data.
• Experience with greenfield exploration, brownfield drilling, infill drilling, resource conversion, grade control, or development-stage drilling campaigns.
• Experience with geological block models, resource models, drillhole databases, 3D geological modeling workflows, and resource classification concepts.
• Experience with tools such as Leapfrog, Vulcan, Datamine, Deswik, Surpac, Micromine, acQuire, MX Deposit, GIS platforms, or similar systems.
• Experience defining QA/QC rules, assay validation processes, reconciliation reports, drilling dashboards, or data governance workflows.
• Strong interest in automation, process optimization, and building better systems for technical mining and exploration workflows.
• Ability to communicate effectively with both technical geology/drilling teams and software/product teams.
• Comfort translating messy field workflows into clear requirements, process maps, rules, dashboards, checks, or software specifications.
• Willingness to be based within the vicinity of the Lisbon Valley / Monticello-Moab, Utah project area and spend meaningful time near the project.
Preferred:
• Experience with sediment-hosted copper, sandstone-hosted copper, red-bed copper, stratiform copper, or similar deposits is helpful, but not required.
• Experience creating products, internal tools, technical solutions, dashboards, workflows, or software-enabled processes is a meaningful asset.
Company:
Mariana Minerals is a software-first critical minerals company that supplies materials essential for modern energy. Founded in 2022, the company is headquartered in Houston, USA, with a team of 51-200 employees. The company is currently Growth Stage.