It never occurred to Lincoln McClinchey to become a miner even though he grew up in one of Ontario's great mining communities, Kirkland Lake.

Lincoln, 31, a development miner at Newmont Canada's Holloway Mine, earned a civil engineering technician's diploma from Canadore College in North Bay, but struggled to find a secure, well-paying job.

Then, one day, he applied for work as a surveyor's helper at the Macassa Mine in Kirkland Lake, and was offered an underground labourer's job instead.

"When I first started, I was a little leery about telling people what I did. I would rather talk to them first, let them pass judgment on me as a person and then tell them.

"There was a misconception that the only guys who went into the mines were guys without education, but that's not true."

Lincoln says he works with a great bunch of guys, and has a lot of independence.

Most important, he makes a good living for his wife, who is still in school, and his five-year-old son.

Bumps
Lincoln has worked at four mines since 1995 and knows there are no guarantees of lifelong employment in the industry. Ore reserves, ore grade and market price dictate whether a gold mine can operate at a profit.

But in this day and age, says Lincoln, it's not unusual for people to have to switch jobs three or four times, whether it's in mining or some other industry.

On the plus side, working in four mines over a period of 10 years has broadened his experience. Now, any mining company would snap him up in a second.

As a development miner, Lincoln operates mobile drilling equipment called jumbos, and load-haul-dump machines. Jumbos are large vehicles used for drilling holes in rock. The holes are loaded with explosives and blasted. Then the broken rock (called muck) is scoopd up and hauled away. He also extends ventilation ducting, compressed air and water services as the drift, or tunnel, advances.

Sense of accomplishment
"The work is physically challenging." he admits, "but you have a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day."

He alternates between day and night shifts, works some weekends and gets four and five-days off at a time.

A member of the Holloway mine rescue competition team, Lincoln has been trained to respond to underground accidents and emergencies, and competes in regional and provincial competitions against teams from other mines.

A mining technician diploma from the Haileybury School of Mines or Cambrian College would have been more relevant than the civil engineering program he enrolled in, but coming out of high school, he didn't know what he was going to do with his life.

"I didn't really know which direction to head in," he says. "I just knew I had to go to school and this was a program I took. I really wasn't sure it was for me."

"I thought about going back to take something else, but I had already accumulated about $10,000 in OSAP debt."

Guidance counsellors in high school didn't offer him a roadmap, but Lincoln doesn't blame them.

"What I thought I wanted when I was sixteen changed totally when I was seventeen and changed again when I was eighteen. Between the ages of fifteen and twenty, my views on everything in terms of work and life changed several times."

It may have taken him a little longer to find his way, but Lincoln's life is now on cruise control.

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