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 This study aims at examining the challenges and prospects of skilled labour in quarry operations in Edo State, Nigeria.  Primary sources of data collection used were questionnaires which were distributed to respondents. A total of seventy (70) respondents which were made up of technical employees, supervisors and managers of each quarry were sampled for the study. The statistical tools used are descriptive statistics and Spearmans rho correlation. This study is to evaluate the challenges and prospects of skilled workers in quarry operations, determining the level of production and the benefits of using skilled workers to promote production, and recommend policies that would solve problems faced by quarry workers in quarries in the state, as well as increasing the rate of utilization of skilled workers which would help in effective production of solid mineral exploitation in the selected quarries. This study shows that majority (61.4%) of the workers lived in the community, 55.7% had a bachelors degree. Most of the skilled workers (47.1%) were paid salaries and wages between N50,000 to N100,000 while 80.0% attested to Distance from home to work place (quarry) as a major challenge faced as skilled worker who always work regularly (50.0%) as supervisory workers (78.6%). Spearmans rho test of association between challenges of skilled workers and years of service in quarry operation shows that majority of the challenges relates non  significantly with year of service (p  0.05). Skilled workers live far from the quarry work place, it is therefore recommended that quarry administrators provide shelters for their skilled workers to increase production and improve productivity as the time spent on trip is better utilized on production activities.
Keywords: Skilled labour, quarry operation, wage, employer, qualification, working environment