Miners in Nevada come from all corners of the earth, all walks of life and all bring with them different backgrounds. They find their careers in the mining industry through education, through friends and family, through happenstance and even, occasionally, out of necessity. The bottom line is that no matter how miners find their place within the industry, their career has only just begun.
In this edition of our “Meet Your Miners” blog series, we are introduced to a Southern Californian who turned unemployment in a new state into a 28-year career in mining.
Shelley Monteith is a metallurgical technician working in the assay lab at Coeur Rochester silver mine in Lovelock, Nevada. She didn’t move straight into this position when she came to Nevada nearly 30 years ago, and she’d be the first to admit it: she wouldn’t have been ready for it.
“I remember calling out over the Motorola to the project manager, ‘What’s your 10-4?’ said Monteith. “I was supposed to say, ‘What’s your 20?’”
Not only was she a rookie to the language, Monteith was entirely new to the industry. Needing to find employment, she was hired to do clerical work at Coeur Rochester for the contract administrator while the new mine was under construction. But as she advanced through her career, moving her into the lab and her current position in metallurgy, Monteith was faced with new puzzles realizations like How does a solution get pregnant? and I thought bullion was a thin soup! Now, after 28 years in mining, what once seemed like sorcery has become “simple” metallurgy.
“Lots of learning, but that’s what’s so interesting about my job,” said Monteith. “I’m still learning new things like how to get better recoveries from our ore, how and why we can or cannot do so, and how to predict what we can and will eventually extract.”
Though Monteith had many years of college with a major in cultural anthropology, she walked away with no degree to show for it, despite all her efforts. She found her chance in mining and thanks the above-average wages that the mining industry pays for her ability to manage quite well, even through times of family hardship. Living a comfortable life, even being able to invest in other properties, she remains ever thankful for what the mining industry has afforded her throughout her career.
“It’s about being kind and helpful to others, being reliable and being a good listener,” she said. “There’s no such thing as a dumb question…never be afraid of asking anything, even repeatedly. If I hadn’t asked the right questions, I may not have ended up in mining.”