Mining Engineers - Blasting Away Misconceptions
Contributor:
Cole Latimer
Posted: 04/02/2012 12:00:00 AM EDT | 0
Posted: 04/02/2012 12:00:00 AM EDT | 0
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One of the main problems with the skills shortage is that many outside the industry think it is a broad based shortage, instead of an acute shortage of technical and engineering positions.
Mining engineers are in very short supply and one niche of this sector – blasting engineers – are even rarer.
Speaking to Downer Blasting Services’ executive general manager blasting, Cliff Gale, he explained to Australian Mining that the blasting industry is facing a number of constraints in key areas.
“While there is plenty of opportunity for growth, it’s hard to find quality people,” Gale said.
“The problem with this industry is that it is a niche of a niche, blast engineers are a subset of mining engineers, so these guys are few and far between and getting particularly thinner on the ground.”
So what is the answer?
Training courses are the main recourse but the fact is that blast engineers and shot firers are a special breed of people.
“The operational guys who want to work on blast crews have a job that is outside, on the benches, the kinds of people who gravitate towards these role aren’t the traditional mining guys, these guys are out in the elements a lot and it doesn’t suit everyone,” Gale told Australian Mining.
“While we run shotfirer courses and the turnover is fairly low (only around 16 per cent) and there is no problem retaining blasting workers, the real problem is keeping up with demand, as the industry grows so fast we are starting to have feeding the beast so to speak,” he said.
Although a lot of people want to get into blasting, and recruits keep coming in at a small rate this will cause flow on problems as they need to be trained up and will often have to take on more complicated roles earlier.
This will lead to blast design work carried out by less experienced engineers, which in turn leads to less efficient blasting.
There is also the attrition of blast professionals as they make the move to owner miners such as BMA “as they offer more job security” but takes shotfirers away from smaller miners.
“However they tend to be less dynamic in these positions,” he added.
If this trend keeps up the industry is in for a dire
future.
future.
This article was originally published on http://www.miningaustralia.com.au and is re-published here with permission.
Want to find out more?
If you're interested in learning more about this topic, attend Drill & Blast 2012 on 17 - 18 April 2012 in Brisbane.
OR
If you have an interest in workforce planning and skills shortages for the mining sector, attend Workforce Planning & Management in Mining 2012 on 17 - 18 April 2012 in Perth.
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Contributor:
Cole Latimer |
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