If you would have told Andrea Brickey (MinE 99) as an undergraduate that she would one day return to South Dakota Mines as a professor, she probably would have laughed.
“Being a professor was not on my list of things to do,” she said.
But 16 years later that’s exactly what she did. And not only that – she moved into the office of retiring professor Charles (Chuck) Kliche (MinE 74), her mentor and the very person who suggested she become an educator in the first place.
“He told me I should go out and get industry experience and then get a Ph.D. and come back and move into his office. I showed up a year before he left, so I guess he was right.”
Dr. Brickey is now in her eighth year with the Department of Mining Engineering & Management and was recently promoted to Full Professor. This year she received the 2023 Mining and Exploration Division Distinguished Service Award from the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, & Exploration, an organization she’s belonged to since her undergraduate years. The award honors members who have made outstanding contributions to the mining and exploration division.
Dr. Brickey’s path to the mining industry and to engineering started early on. Her father spent most of his career in mining and was working as a coal miner in southern Illinois when she was born. Perhaps that’s why, years later when she landed at South Dakota Mines, the mining department felt like the best fit for her.
“There was a sense of belonging and familiarity to some extent. It was comfortable, yet still challenging exciting.”
She knew from about the age of 12 that she wanted to be an engineer.
“I went to space camp because I thought I wanted to be an astronaut, but during a flight simulation I noticed there was a person who was telling the astronaut what to do. When I found out that the flight simulator was an engineer, I thought ‘Well then I want to be an engineer because I don’t want someone else telling me what to do,’” she said with a giggle.
Andrea at space camp
Really, what she noticed was that she wanted to be the person solving the problem.
Her family eventually moved to Rawlins, Wyo. where one of Dr. Brickey’s science teachers talked highly of South Dakota Mines. When she visited the mining department, she said it felt like home. She remembers her time as an undergraduate at Mines as “a blast”, and notes that two people had an especially big influence on her - Dr. Kliche (now Professor Emeritus) and Dr. Zbigniew (Ziggy) Hladysz.
Dr. Brickey with Dr. Kliche
Even though the mining industry was going through challenging times when she graduated, she was fortunate to get a job in her field.“I graduated during the dot-com bubble, so a lot of my friends went to work for Oracle and companies like that, but I really wanted to be in mining.”
Her first job was at a copper mine in Nevada, but she worked for a contract miner, so she moved around quite a bit. In her first five years alone, she lived in Nevada, Montana, Idaho, Venezuela, Canada and Colorado.
“I used to be able to fit everything I owned in in two Rubbermaid totes and get into my Ford Ranger and just pick up and move in a relatively short period of time.”
During this time, she got to work with many different types of commodities and methods, and she also wore many hats.
“I got to be the drill and blast engineer, the safety trainer, I did the budgets. I also drove the water truck when someone was out sick.”
Andrea the miner
Her next job was with Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mine in central Colorado, another job that took her all over the world. While in South Africa she got a postgraduate diploma in Management Practices from the University of Cape Town. During her time with Cripple Creek, she met her husband, Chris Brickey (Phys 99), also a South Dakota Mines alum. The two graduated the same day but had never met.
While she enjoyed travelling, the demands eventually became too much.
"My boss would come in and say, ‘I need you in Brazil by Wednesday and I don’t know when you’re going to come home.’ So, the words of Chuck Kliche started rolling around in my head. I had started doing some training and realized that I loved teaching, so I thought, maybe I should give this a shot.”
Dr. Brickey got her Ph.D. from Colorado School of Mines in 2015, and right after that she and Chris moved back to South Dakota. She now uses her mining experience and research skills to mentor future engineers who will continue to improve the industry. Her current research focuses primarily on using math to make underground mining environments both safer for miners and more efficient with operations. She’s also looking at re-purposing the electrical infrastructure at mines to generate and distribute renewable energy on reclaimed lands.
When asked if her focus on safety was in any way influenced by her father’s career, she can’t be sure.
“I never really thought about that. Dad went to work, and then he came home. We’ve made some great strides in mining safety. A lot of what most people think of when it comes to mining safety and environmental impact might be about mining techniques from 100 years ago. Today, mining in the US is high tech and safer than farming. Does that mean we’re done? No, we’re continually working to make sure the industry is safe. Our ultimate goal is that every day, everyone goes home from every mine.”
That’s why Dr. Brickey believes we can never stop learning, which is part of the reason she’s been heading up the university’s Office for Professional Education since 2021. The office aims to bring development opportunities that benefit all industries while also helping people meet their need for continuing education.
While being a professor is, in her words, a long-term investment, it’s been extremely rewarding.
“I love the students’ curiosity. I also just really appreciate their inquisitiveness, enthusiasm, and desire to make the industry better. I love getting those emails from a graduate who’s four to five years out saying how well they’re doing.”
By the end of the year, she plans to have started a Black Hills chapter of Women in Mining to help encourage more women to enter the field. Over the years she’s seen it become a welcoming and more conscientious industry.
“There are a lot of great women in the mining industry, but we need more. With the demand for minerals, workforce development is going to be a big thing for the mining industry. So, we are trying to show all of the opportunities that are available.”
She’s particularly excited about the Nucor Mineral Industries Building being constructed on campus.
“We’re so excited. Not only will it help us educate our students with the modern equipment and technology that is changing the industry, but it will help demonstrate the importance of the mineral industries. It’s great that this university is so supportive of that because it’s the foundation of our society, helping provide the raw materials we need to do all the things we want to do. Obviously, manufacturing, like solar panels, electric cars, cell phones and computers, but even industries like agriculture and pharmaceuticals depend heavily on mining. We touch pretty much everything.”
At the end of the day, she’s proud to do her work at South Dakota Mines, a university that she says does a good job of facilitating teamwork.
“There’s a great sense of community here. This university facilitates teamwork for faculty, staff and for students as well.” She thinks often about her decision to attend Mines.
“Going to school here was an excellent decision for both me and my husband. We both graduated with very little or no debt, got great jobs, and were prepared well for industry jobs. Going here opened so many doors for us. We think about that often and are so appreciative.”
In turn, South Dakota Mines is appreciative of Dr. Brickey for her commitment to the mining industry and to our students, the future engineers who will follow in her footsteps.
Dr. Brickey with two of her students, Sharon Arrieta and Michael Michael
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