Mining resumes in Australia: how to list your tickets, licences and roster

Your resume opens with a summary paragraph, then three jobs, then a skills section near the bottom where your tickets sit in a small line next to "Microsoft Office". You've led a crew, you hold the licences the role needs, and the application still goes quiet. The screener reading it for a mine site isn't reading your summary first. They're checking whether you're allowed to do the job at all, and that answer is on page two.

We read 18 individual Australian mining advertisements one at a time, across 16 job families and three states, to find out exactly what a mining employer checks first and what they genuinely don't ask for. The pattern is consistent enough to build a resume structure around.

Your tickets. 16 of the 18 advertisements we read and recorded named a specific ticket, licence or statutory certificate, each one with a real code. A WA A Grade Electrical Licence. HR class licences. RIIRIS301, RIIOHS301, RIICOM301. An Order 43 Pre-Placement Health Assessment. AS/NZS 1554.4 for structural welding. That's the level of specificity a screener is scanning for, and a resume that says "fully licensed" instead of naming the code is answering a different, vaguer question than the one being asked.

Do you need a cover letter for a mining job?

Usually not. Of the 18 mining ads we read, 1 asked for one, and it was a camp services role rather than an operator, trades or technical position. Elsewhere in the industries we've coded, a cover letter earns its place more often than that. In mining, the resume itself is where the work happens, and a missing cover letter simply reflects that the industry has already told you where to put your effort.

Should your roster availability be on the page?

Yes, if you have a preference or a constraint worth naming. 12 of the 18 advertisements stated a roster outright: 8 and 6, 2 and 1, DIDO from a named city. Stating what you can work, and your notice period, answers a question the advertisement has already told you it's going to ask, and it removes a phone call that would otherwise happen before anyone reads your experience properly.

How current does your police clearance need to be?

Very. 4 of the 18 advertisements required a police clearance issued within the last six months, which means a clearance from two years ago, however clean, doesn't satisfy the requirement as written. Currency dates matter across every credential in mining, from tickets to medicals to statutory certificates. Flag the actual date on anything close to expiry so the screener sees it immediately, rather than discovering it themselves and moving to the next application.

Is DEMIRS still the regulator in Western Australia?

No, and a surprising number of training providers still say it is. Mines safety regulation in WA moved out of DEMIRS, the old Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety, on 1 July 2025. The safety and statutory-position function now sits under WorkSafe, inside the Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety. A resume, cover letter or set of credentials that still names DEMIRS as the current regulator is citing a name that stopped performing that function well over a year ago, and a supervisor or statutory-role applicant should know the current name before an interviewer asks about it.

What's changing about certificates of competency in Queensland?

Resources Safety and Health Queensland runs a Board of Examiners certificate of competency scheme for statutory mining positions, and it's mid-transition. The scheme has been mandatory since 10 June 2025. Full assessment against the new process, including the written and practical components, phases in from 1 June 2026, and mandatory certificate holding for the roles it covers doesn't complete until 1 June 2030. If you're working toward a statutory ticket in Queensland, state which stage of that timeline you're actually sitting in, since "working toward certification" alone doesn't tell a screener whether you're mandated, mid-assessment, or already holding the certificate.

What actually is a "coal board medical"?

An industry nickname. The official name behind it is the periodic health assessment required under the Coal Mine Workers' Health Scheme (not the easiest set of words to say twice). Employers and workers use the shorter name constantly, so it's fine in conversation, but the scheme's actual name is worth having right on a document that's meant to read as precise about credentials, since precision about credentials is the entire point of a mining resume.

Should your certificate and your job title share one line?

No. A statutory certificate of competency and the job title it entitles you to hold are two different facts, and collapsing them into one line is the most common error we see in supervisory and statutory resumes. The certificate is the credential: what you're qualified to hold, and since when. The role is the experience: what you actually did while holding it, for how long, and at what scale. Keeping them as separate, clearly labelled lines lets a screener verify the credential and assess the experience as two separate questions, which is how they're going to read it regardless of how you write it.

The short version

• We read 18 Australian mining job ads. Sixteen named a specific ticket, licence or statutory certificate by its real code.
• One asked for a cover letter, and it was a camp services role.
• Twelve stated a roster outright.
• Four required a police clearance issued within the last six months.
• None stated a page limit, and none asked for a portfolio.
• WA mines safety regulation moved from DEMIRS to WorkSafe, inside the Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety, on 1 July 2025.
• Queensland's Board of Examiners certificate of competency scheme has been mandatory since 10 June 2025, with full assessment from 1 June 2026 and mandatory holding from 1 June 2030.

The tickets answer whether you're allowed to do the job. Everything else on the page answers whether you'd be good at it.

We'd like to help with this

Honestly, this is the part we enjoy. Send your resume through the free review and a writer will tell you plainly what a mining screener would miss in it today, whether or not you ever buy anything from us.

Our mining and resources hub covers what we currently offer for operators, trades, technical and supervisory applications, and the resume writing service, from $149, rebuilds your resume so tickets, currency dates and roster sit at the top rather than the bottom. If the advertisement does ask for a letter, the cover letter service writes it. Send your resume through the free review and a writer will tell you plainly what a mining screener would miss in it today.

Source: 18 individual Australian mining job advertisements across 16 job families and three states, read by us in 2026. Regulatory transition dates confirmed against WorkSafe (within the Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety) at demirs.wa.gov.au, which now redirects to the current department, and Resources Safety and Health Queensland at rshq.qld.gov.au.