Excavation marks the spot
"The resources boom has been widely hailed as a major boon for the Australian economy. Yet what has been less well advertised is the chronic shortage of workforce talent available to fill crucial roles in all areas of the mining sector...
Louise
Dodson, the director of external relations for the Minerals Council of Australia says demand for talent is tipped to increase markedly by the year 2020...By 2020 the industry will need an additional 90,000 people... "
My Career , The Sydney Morning Herald, Owen Thomson, 14/07/08, p2
Miner change
"Rio Tinto Coal short-term planning superintendent David Bennet didn't follow the typical route to become a mining engineer...after finishing high school Bennet began driving heavy machinery...
After all those years I dodged going to uni it was time to step up and get some qualifications just to complete the learning curve, says Bennet....
Bennet then began a diploma of Mining Engineering at the University of NSW which he completed part-time.
While many mining graduates complain they don't learn enough practical knowledge at university, Bennet found the experience to be just the opposite. When I went to uni I found I learnt a whole lot about the mining industry that I didn't know before...It opened my eyes to a lot of different types of mining operations like underground mines and open-cut mining.
CareerOne, The Daily Telegraph, Henry Budd, 08/03/08, p1
Booming mining's no longer the pits
"From the pits of Australia to the coalfields of Wyoming, mining companies like Rio Tinto are hunting for people to address a dire shortage of workers. A decade ago, with prices slumping, the sense of mining as a sunset industry left it with a workforce with grey hair. But these days, the industry is struggling to meet burgeoning global demand for iron, copper, and other key commodities....
The Minerals Council of Australia, in a recent report, estimated that by 2015 Australia alone would need 70,000 employees on top of the 120,000 it has now to keep up the demand.... Mining recruiters say that industry salaries have climbed 20 per cent in the last two years. Yet mines are so short of workers that projects are being delayed as production costs rise."
SMH, Wayne Arnold and Heather Timmons, 03/02/07, p6
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