A mining surveyor measures and maps surface and underground mine workings and keeps the official mine maps the operation runs on accurate and up to date.
In the United States the job sits inside the surveying profession, with its education, experience and state-licensure route, and mine sites add MSHA safety training.
Mine Surveyor is a reported job title within the federal surveyors occupation.
What is a mine surveyor?
A mine surveyor is a surveyor who specializes in mines: measuring and mapping surface and underground workings and keeping the operation's official mine maps current.
The title is established enough that O*NET, the federal occupational database, lists Mine Surveyor among the reported job titles for surveyors (SOC 17-1022.00), alongside Land Surveyor, County Surveyor and Registered Land Surveyor.
Underground work is part of federal surveying definitions.
The Bureau of Land Management's Manual of Surveying Instructions defines surveying as measuring and locating points, lines, angles and elevations on the Earth's surface, explicitly including underground workings and the beds of water bodies — exactly the geometry a mine surveyor works in.
What separates the specialty from boundary work on the surface is the setting and the products.
The work runs through underground workings and across surface mine sites instead of along property lines, and the signature deliverable is the operation's official mine map — in coal mining, a federal safety document with its own certification requirement.
BLS's industry distribution for surveyors includes a row for mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction, which held 1% of US surveyor jobs in 2025.
That row covers oil and gas as well as mines.
This guide covers the United States.
Mine surveyors in other countries work under different national systems, which are outside its scope.
What does a mine surveyor do in surface vs underground mines?
Underground, the survey work runs through the workings themselves, and the coal rules tie it to the surface.
The required map contents include permanent base line points coordinated with the underground and surface mine traverses (30 CFR 75.1200-1), so the position of the workings is known relative to the surface.
The most consequential product is the mine map.
Under MSHA's rules for underground coal mines (30 CFR 75.1200), the operator must keep an accurate, up-to-date scaled map in a fireproof surface repository.
That map has to show the active workings; pillared, worked-out and abandoned areas; entries and aircourses with the direction of airflow; elevation contours; and escapeways.
It also has to show adjacent workings within 1,000 feet, mines above or below, water pools above, and oil and gas wells within 500 feet.
A companion rule (30 CFR 75.1200-1) adds property and boundary lines, at least two permanent base line points coordinated with the surface and underground traverses, and at least two permanent elevation bench marks.
It also requires floor elevations at intervals of not more than 200 feet in specified entries, and coalbed contour lines at no more than 10-foot intervals.
And under 30 CFR 75.1201, that underground map must be made or certified by a registered engineer or a registered surveyor of the state in which the mine is located.
That certification requirement traces back to the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969.
Surface coal mines and the surface work areas of underground coal mines carry a parallel set of rules.
MSHA's 30 CFR 77.1200 requires surface coal mine maps at a scale of not less than 100 nor more than 500 feet to the inch, a duplicate copy kept at a separate location, and coalbed contour lines at no more than 25-foot intervals.
Under 30 CFR 77.1201, those maps must be made or certified by an engineer or surveyor registered by the state where the mine is located.
Part of the surface work at a coal mine is the surveying those maps require: locating the workings and features the rules list, holding the required scale and contour detail, and keeping the duplicate copy at its separate location current (30 CFR 77.1200).
These are the coal rules
What education and license do mine surveyors need?
Two rulebooks shape the path: state surveying licensure and federal mine-safety training.
All 50 states and the District of Columbia require surveyors to be licensed before providing services to the public.
MSHA's coal mine-map rules also name a state registration.
Underground coal mine maps must be made or certified by a registered engineer or a registered surveyor of the state where the mine is located (30 CFR 75.1201), and surface coal mine maps by an engineer or surveyor registered by the state (30 CFR 77.1201).
Those rules govern who makes or certifies the map; our research did not establish whether every mine surveyor must hold a license.
On education, BLS lists a bachelor's degree in a field such as land surveying, engineering or natural resources as the typical entry-level education for surveyors, with some employers hiring candidates who have an associate's degree plus training.
The experience comes on the job.
BLS describes entry-level surveyors often working under a licensed surveyor for several years before qualifying for a license, and notes that some surveyors begin as surveying technicians and become licensed after many years of experience.
The survey technician career guide covers that starting role.
Requirements vary by state, so the specific education and experience route is the state board's, not a national one.
The second layer is mine training under MSHA, the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Each new underground miner must receive at least 40 hours of training before being assigned to work, and every underground miner takes at least 8 hours of refresher training each year (30 CFR Part 48, Subpart A).
Surface mines and the surface work areas of underground mines fall under Part 48 Subpart B, with at least 24 hours of new-miner training.
Part 46 operations — sand, gravel, surface stone, clay, colloidal phosphate and surface limestone — also need at least 24 hours of new-miner training and 8 hours of annual refresher.
Under 30 CFR 48.2, people who work in an underground mine but are not miners for full training — delivery, office and scientific workers, occasional short-term contractors — still receive hazard training under 48.11.
The rule does not name surveyors.
Whether a contract surveyor needs full new-miner training or hazard-only training depends on how often and how long the person is exposed to mine hazards.
Two regulators, two rulebooks
What are working conditions like?
The base conditions are surveying's own.
BLS describes survey fieldwork as outdoors in all weather, walking long distances, standing for long periods and sometimes climbing hills with heavy instrument packs.
A mine site adds its own layer: MSHA's training rules govern who can be assigned work there (30 CFR Parts 46 and 48), and people working in an underground mine who are not miners for full training still receive hazard training under 48.11 (30 CFR 48.2).
That training layer governs when a surveyor can be assigned to mine work.
Travel is a real factor in the specialty.
BLS says traveling is often part of the job, surveyors may commute long distances, and those on resource-extraction projects may be in remote areas and spend long periods away from home — the category mine projects sit in.
On hours, BLS says most surveyors work full time and may have longer workdays while doing fieldwork; BLS publishes no weekly-hours or overtime figure for the occupation.
BLS lists communication, detail orientation, physical stamina, problem-solving, time management and visualization as the qualities surveyors need.
Mine surveyor jobs
O*NET reports Mine Surveyor as a job title within the federal surveyors occupation (SOC 17-1022.00).
For scale, BLS's 2025 industry distribution of surveyor jobs ran: 71% in architectural, engineering and related services, 10% in construction, 9% in government, 2% self-employed, and 1% in mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction.
The outlook and pay figures BLS publishes are for the surveyors occupation (SOC 17-1022) as a whole — the occupation the Mine Surveyor title sits inside.
BLS's Occupational Outlook Handbook counted about 52,000 surveyor jobs in 2025, and projects 6% growth from 2025 to 2035, from 52,000 to 55,000 jobs, which BLS calls faster than the 3% projected for all occupations.
It also projects about 3,100 openings a year on average over the period, mostly to replace workers who change occupations or retire.
The national pay data for that occupation, BLS OEWS May 2025, is on the land surveyor salary page.
When you are ready to look, browse mining surveyor jobs on the board.
And if you hire for a mine, an aggregates operation or a firm that serves them, you can post a surveying job on SurveyorHires.
Career information, not legal, tax or licensing advice. Licensure and mine-safety rules are set by your state's board of licensure and by MSHA — confirm the current requirements with them before you act on anything here.