Digging up the metals that go into power grids and electric cars is crucial to the energy transition. While the mining industry has plenty of reserves to tap, it faces a worrying shortage of young workers needed to get materials out of the ground.
In regions like Canada and the U.S., enrolment or graduation from university courses related to mining engineering slipped in recent years. The dilemma adds to the challenges miners face as they scramble to boost output of everything from copper and nickel to cobalt and lithium, just as many nations view supplies as a matter of national security and users rush to secure metal.
Fewer students want to be geologists or engineers, partly due to mining’s negative image regarding pollution, human rights and gender equality. That’s leaving the industry with an aging workforce and forcing it to recruit from outside the traditional university talent pool, such as through apprenticeship programs and internal training.
“There’s been a bit of a lost decade in people going through university in mining courses that’s proving to really come to crunch point now,” said Alison Allen, deputy managing director at U.K.-based mining consultancy Wardell Armstrong. “There are too few graduates filling needs.”
The waning interest is clear in some of the world’s key mining jurisdictions. At the Colorado School of Mines, total enrolment in mining, geophysical and geological engineering undergraduate degree courses last year was down about 35 per cent from almost a decade ago. In Canada, mining and mineral engineering graduates dropped by a third between 2016 and 2020, according to Statistics Canada data.
It’s a similar story at the U.K.’s prestigious Camborne School of Mines, traditionally an important feeder school for the global industry. The number earning degrees from its undergraduate mining engineering course fell in recent years, with new intakes halted in 2020. The school this year announced new programs for mining employees.
This article originally posted to The Financial Post: https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/mining-engineer-shortage-green-transition
