Is Mining Actually Good Money? A Young Miner's Honest Answer

There's a myth about mining, and Cayden Ryan would like to clear it up. After four years working underground, the 23-year-old has heard the assumption a thousand times: the mines, that's where the big money is. His honest answer surprises most people.

"A lot of people that know of me know I work in the mines," he says, "and they just think it's super good money. It's not that good money, really."

The reality check

How not-that-good? Cayden puts it in concrete terms: "I'm not on that much more money than someone on machinery at the council." Solid, reliable income — yes. A living. But not the lottery ticket people imagine when they hear "miner."

The genuinely big money, he explains, lives somewhere specific: "If you want big money, you need to be doing the dangerous jobs in big mines." And that's exactly where it gets hard.

The catch-22 nobody warns you about

Here's the trap. The high-paying mining roles are dangerous, so sites won't hand them to inexperienced people. But you can't get experience without being given one of those roles. Cayden lays out the loop plainly:

"How do you get experience if no one's going to put you on? You have to be lucky. Everyone talks about it with mining — you have to know someone. And it's so true."

For the basic underground jobs, sites will take people on. But the moment you try to step up to the bigger-paying, higher-risk work, the door narrows — and connections matter more than applications.

Work ethic is the entry ticket

If the money is more modest than the legend and the top jobs need a network, what does get a newcomer through the door? Cayden is unequivocal: work ethic, proven fast.

On most sites you're working next to people who've done twenty years of hard graft. Walk in with the wrong attitude — "coming in thinking you know everything when you don't" — and it ends quickly. "I've seen people last a week," he says.

The bigger lesson on income

Cayden's clear-eyed about the maths beyond mining too. He'd read that the average Australian salary sits around $106,000, and his takeaway was simple: to clear that, "you're going to have to do more" — take on harder work, or move somewhere with bigger opportunities. It's why he's weighing FIFO, a possible building apprenticeship, and eventually running his own business.

It's a refreshingly grounded take from someone the internet would tell you should be flashing cash. The truth is less glamorous and far more useful: mining is a respectable living built on showing up and grafting — not the shortcut to wealth its reputation promises.

This is one piece of a longer conversation. Read the full story in the Cayden Ryan episode deep-dive, or watch the full episode →.