Recent advancements of generative LLMs (Large Language Models) have exhibited human-like language capabilities but have shown a lack of domain-specific understanding. Therefore, the research community has started the development of domain-specific LLMs for many domains. In this work we focus on discussing how to build mining domain-specific LLMs, as the global mining industry contributes significantly to the worldwide economy. We report on MiningGPT, a mining domain-specific instruction-following 7B parameter LLM model which showed a 14\% higher mining domain knowledge test score as compared to its parent model Mistral 7B instruct.