Betting on Yourself, Breaking Cycles, and Building Something Bigger
Recorded from the Copper Brothel Brewery in Sonoita, Arizona, Mining Minds sits down with longtime friend and the Bald Mountain Bad Boy himself, Mike Hill, for a conversation filled with lasting lessons, career pivots, and the realities of rebuilding yourself both inside and outside the mining industry.
Mike didn't follow a clean path into mining—or out of it. He walked away from home in Colorado knowing he needed a reset, landed in Nevada chasing opportunity, and got thrown straight into the deep end of underground mining with zero experience and a whole lot to prove.
From getting torn apart on the radio as a new nipper to figuring out how to lead teams, build culture, and navigate failure, his story is a series of pivots most people wouldn't take.
And he didn't stop there.
He walked away from mining. Started over. Took hits personally and professionally. Rebuilt again. Now, he's helping lead a growing business at Liberty Fence & Supply, developing people, and creating something completely new with the Copper Brothel Brewery.
Episode Sponsors:
Safety First Training & Consulting
Episode Chapters:
02:53 Colorado Roots and Family
07:17 First Mining Job as a Temp
14:29 Getting Broken In
30:39 Leveraging Experience for Next Step
32:05 Supply Chain Reality Check
40:13 Authenticity Wins Jobs
44:17 Initiative Beyond Warehouse
51:46 Bald Mountain Bad Boys
54:51 Family Money and Overtime
01:08:07 Job Hopping as Growth
01:17:38 Safety Clash and Injury Wakeup
01:24:59 Scaling Liberty Fence Nationwide
