PathLensSOUTH AFRICA · CLEARER PATHS. BRIGHTER OPTIONS.

Mining Operator

OFO Code: 711101

Last checked 7 October 2026

PATHLENS

1. Occupation identity

OFO code
711101
Occupation
Mining Operator
Classification
OFO 2021
Major group
PLANT AND MACHINE OPERATORS AND ASSEMBLERS
Unit group
7111 · Miners and Quarriers

Official description
Miners and quarriers operate plant, machinery and hand tools to extract rock, minerals and non-metallic deposits from underground and surface mines and quarries.

More official OFO detail

Specialisations: Continuous Miner Operator, Crawler Pilot, Mining Plant Operator, Hydraulic Rock Breaker Operator (Mining), Roof Bolter (Mining), Shuttle Car Operator (Mining), Coal Cutter

  • Operating machinery to open new shafts, drives, air vents and rises
  • Setting up and operating drilling equipment in underground and surface mines and quarries
  • Preparing, fitting and installing supports in underground workings including rock bolts
  • Operating auxiliary plant such as pumps to expel air, water and mud
  • Positioning, operating and monitoring the performance of a variety of underground and surface mining equipment including continuous mining, cutting and channelling plant
  • Collecting mineral samples for laboratory analysis
  • Performing minor maintenance and repairs and lubricating and cleaning plant, machines and tools
  • Operating machinery and using tools to remove loosened rock, ore, coal and other deposits
  • Completing records detailing operations completed during shifts

2. Demand status

Demand evidence unavailable

No approved governed OIHD graph relationship is available on this deployment for this OFO code.

PathLens does not fall back to legacy specimen demand flags when governed evidence is unavailable.

A national demand signal is not a promise of a vacancy in your town.

3. Salary evidence

No approved governed salary observation or sourced snapshot salary record is available for this OFO code yet.

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4. Quick EE check

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5. Qualification

Qualification evidence pending.

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6. Study funding

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A funding match will only be shown once a recognised qualification or study route has been identified.

7. Industry, sector and provincial context

National occupation classification. Industry and provincial context are shown only where a separate official source supports the link.

No source-backed modern OFO↔SIC 7 industry link has been ingested for this occupation yet. PathLens does not infer one from the job title.

Browse the official South African industry classification →

8. Next steps — official links

9. Decision tools

10. Sources for this page

  • DHET Organising Framework for Occupations (OFO 2021) · Ingested · identity spine active
    Canonical OFO identity data has been ingested and validated. 1511 occupation records are recorded in the ingest artifact.
  • DHET Occupations in High Demand · Validated pipeline · graph publication not confirmed
    The governed OIHD pipeline is active, but a successful populated graph run is not currently confirmed on this deployment.
  • Critical Skills List · Monitored · occupation linkage pending
    Official migration sources are monitored, but PathLens does not infer visa eligibility or occupation-level eligibility from monitoring alone.
  • QCTO qualifications and occupational certificates · Candidate staging ready · not published
    Qualification staging and human review are implemented; no qualification↔OFO relationship is published without an explicit source identifier or governed human review.
  • Stats SA Quarterly Labour Force Survey · Acquisition active · no approved evidence on this deployment
    Official QLFS artifact discovery is active. Dataset-specific schema, weighting, reliability and review gates remain separate; a discovered artifact or executable estimator does not itself create a public claim.
  • SETA Sector Skills Plans / hard-to-fill vacancy tables · Partial · explicit source links only
    PathLens preserves explicit source-backed SETA/activity links where present and does not infer modern SIC relationships from occupation titles.
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