Mariana Minerals · 18 hours ago
Senior Mine Planner
Houston, TX
Full-time
Onsite
Senior Level
$140K/yr - $175K/yr
5+ years expMariana Minerals is a software-first, vertically integrated minerals company on a mission to supply the critical minerals powering modern energy, AI, and defense technologies. They are seeking a Senior Mine Planner to lead strategic mine planning, opportunity evaluation, and long-range optimization across their portfolio of mining projects. This role involves defining how mines are evaluated, designed, sequenced, and optimized, ensuring technical rigor and decision-quality across all assets.
Mining & Metals
Responsibilities
Lead technical mine planning input for project screening, opportunity evaluation, and portfolio-level decision making
Develop high-level mine concepts, production profiles, and sequencing options to support investment, acquisition, and development decisions
Partner with geology, metallurgy, and commercial teams to evaluate trade-offs between scale, timing, risk, and value
Own and develop long-range (LOM) mine plans that maximize NPV, operational flexibility, and strategic optionality
Perform multi-pit optimization, phase sequencing, and cutback strategy development across complex deposits
Evaluate alternative development strategies, mining rates, and sequencing scenarios to support robust decision making
Define and maintain company-wide standards, methodologies, and assumptions for short-, medium-, and long-term mine planning
Establish consistent approaches to mine design, scheduling, economic evaluation, and scenario analysis across all projects
Review and challenge mine plans produced by internal teams and external consultants to ensure technical rigor and alignment with company standards
Work closely with geology, geotechnical, processing, infrastructure, and operations teams to ensure mine plans are fully integrated and technically sound
Translate long-range strategic plans into clear planning frameworks that downstream engineering and operations teams can execute against
Serve as the technical authority for mine planning decisions across the organization
Mentor and guide mine planners and engineers across the company, raising the overall quality and consistency of planning work
Contribute to the development of internal tools, templates, and workflows that improve planning efficiency and decision quality
Stay current on industry best practices, software, and optimization techniques, bringing new ideas into the organization
Qualification
Required
Bachelor's degree in Mining Engineering or a closely related field
5+ years of mine planning experience, with a strong emphasis on long-range planning, optimization, and strategic evaluation
Demonstrated expertise in pit optimization, phase design, sequencing, and economic trade-off analysis
Strong proficiency with modern mine planning and optimization tools (e.g., Deswik, Whittle, Vulcan, MinePlan, Leapfrog)
Experience evaluating complex, multi-pit or multi-deposit mining projects
Ability to think at both the technical and strategic level, connecting mine plans to capital decisions and long-term value creation
Strong communication skills and confidence operating as a senior technical authority
Experience supporting early-stage studies (conceptual, PEA, PFS, FS) and corporate-level project evaluations
Preferred
Master's degree in Mining Engineering or a closely related field
Experience working in fast-moving, project-driven or greenfield environments
Professional Engineer (P.Eng or equivalent), or eligibility
Company
Mariana Minerals
Mariana Minerals is a software-first, vertically integrated minerals company focused on supplying the minerals critical to modern energy, AI, and defense technologies.
11-50 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Mariana Minerals has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (7)
Funding
Current Stage
Early StageCompany data provided by crunchbase