He grew up in the West Country of England, attracted by the history and technology of its underground tin and copper mining. This led to bachelor, masters and PhD degrees at the Camborne School of Mines, Leicester University, and Nottingham University. He is a professional engineer in B.C. and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering.

He has held terms as the head of the mining departments at both McGill and UBC. His teaching and research evolved over his career from surface and underground mining technology to mining automation. In the last decade, however, he has been devoted to promoting Sustainable Mining with its communities.

Scoble’s teaching has focused mainly on aspects of mine planning and design, automation, IT and geomechanics. His research evolved from surface and underground rock mechanics, to mine automation, and more recently to sustainable development and mining communities. To date he has supervised 32 Ph.D and 29 master’s research students to completion.

Scoble has worked in various mines as a mining engineer on research and consulting projects in Portugal, UK, Australia, Africa, North and South America, and China.