Mining engineer in the context of Surface mining

Richard Trevithick (13 April 1771 – 22 April 1833) was a British inventor and mining engineer. The son of a mining captain, and born in the mining heartland of Cornwall, Trevithick was immersed in mining and engineering from an early age. He was an early pioneer of steam-powered road and rail transport, and his most significant contributions were the development of the first high-pressure steam engine and the first working railway steam locomotive. The world's first locomotive-hauled railway journey took place on 21 February 1804, when Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks, in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.

Turning his interests abroad Trevithick also worked as a mining consultant in Peru and later explored parts of Costa Rica. Throughout his professional career he went through many ups and downs and at one point faced financial ruin, also suffering from the strong rivalry of many mining and steam engineers of the day. During the prime of his career he was a well-known and highly respected figure in mining and engineering, but near the end of his life he fell out of the public eye.

A Brunton compass, properly known as the Brunton Pocket Transit, is a precision compass made by Brunton, Inc. of Riverton, Wyoming. The instrument was patented in 1894 by Canadian-born geologist David W. Brunton. Unlike most modern compasses, the Brunton Pocket Transit utilizes magnetic induction damping rather than fluid to damp needle oscillation. Although Brunton, Inc. makes many other types of magnetic compasses, the Brunton Pocket Transit is a specialized instrument used widely by those needing to make accurate navigational and slope-angle measurements in the field. Users are primarily geologists, but archaeologists, environmental engineers, mining engineers and surveyors also make use of the Brunton's capabilities. The United States Army has adopted the Pocket Transit as the M2 Compass for use by crew-served artillery.

Danie Gerhardus Krige GCOB (Afrikaans: [ˈdɑːni ˈkriχə]; 26 August 1919 – 3 March 2013) was a South African statistician and mining engineer who pioneered the field of geostatistics and was professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, Republic of South Africa. The technique of kriging is named after him. Krige's empirical work to evaluate mineral resources was formalised in the 1960s by French engineer Georges Matheron.

Ulrich Rülein von Calw (1465–1523) was a doctor, mathematician and well-known mining engineer. He was also active as a surveyor, town planner and astrologer and was the mayor (Bürgermeister) of the mining town of Freiberg for five years.