Talent Shortage in Mining Industry Expected to Grow
There were 700 engineering students graduating in 1991 in the United States, compared with 135 this year.
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The mining industry already is in the throes of a talent shortage, and that shortage will continue as the world’s demand for mined commodities grows with China’s economic growth, a global recruiting specialist said Thursday.
“Nothing prepared us,” for China’s growth, Leigh Freeman, general manager and principal of Downing Teal Inc., told a luncheon audience at the Northwest Mining Association convention.
With the growing demand for copper to meet construction needs, and the high prices for gold and silver, mines are growing and exploration is in high swing, but there aren’t enough mining professionals to meet demand.
Freeman used engineers as an example of the crisis. He said there were 700 engineering students graduating in 1991 in the United States, compared with 135 this year, putting mining companies in a bind.
“You can ask the gray hairs to work longer, but that’s just a delay,” Freeman said.
There are 600 mining students in the U.S. today, which will fall far short of need, but he said Mongolia, for example, has 3,300 mining students. Colleges in this country are arranging for Mongolian students to attend their last two years in this country, which is one innovation to deal with the problem, Freeman said.
Companies will be recruiting from out of the country for professionals, but he said students from different cultures don’t always make good leaders in this country.
Another snag is that countries such as Australia and Chile are recruiting from the U.S.
Australia is raising pay to draw people. Freeman showed a chart that compares U.S. and Australian salaries. A new engineering graduate might make $70,000 in the U.S. and between $100,000 and $130,000 a year in Australia. A senior engineer could make $90,000 to $110,000 in this country but $150,000 to $175,000 in Australia. A technical services manager might make $140,000 to $150,000 in the U.S. and $250,000 to $280,000 in Australia.
Australians are just learning the techniques for recruiting in this country, but when they improve, “we will be stripped clean.”
Freeman said the shortage of talent points to the need for adapting to changes.
Mining companies are taking the reins by hiring students while still in their sophomore year of college, with the offer to pay for their education if they work for them after graduation. If they don’t, they have to consider the money a loan and pay it back, Freeman said after his talk at John Ascuaga’s Nugget Casino Resort.
The mining industry in Nevada and the West has been hiring more people as gold prices went up, and the companies continue recruitment efforts as more exploration companies drill and more mining projects are planned.
Another sign of the interest in the industry is the turnout for the convention. NWMA Executive Director Laura Skaer said Thursday registrations were at roughly 2,750 as of noon.
Freeman also pointed to the widening income gap for all Americans that he said shows the need for adaption to the digital revolution.
“We can’t have that many people offline,” Freeman said.
Meanwhile, other countries are adapting, and he said this means more foreign graduates from U.S. colleges are going back home, rather than staying in this country.
Then, there is the question of American students falling behind on their reading and critical thinking skills, while they are doing OK in math, Freeman said, blaming No Child Left Behind for the gap.
“They are teaching to the testing, not teaching students to think,” he said.
Also at the luncheon, Richard DeLong, the incoming NWMA president, said the association’s goals for 2012 will include doing more to educate people about the importance of mining and point out that “the mining industry is the only industry that has added jobs since 2007, and pays some of the highest wages in the country.”
He said the industry can use the message of job creation as the election season gears up, and also urge lawmakers and candidates to do more to lessen this country’s reliance on imports of critical minerals.
More mining projects also means more tax revenue, DeLong said.
— By Adella Harding, Elko Daily Free Press
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