The story that accompanies the picture posted above starts as follows:
Six First Nation trainees are ready to start work in the mining sector thanks to a partnership program between Matachewan First Nation, Northgate Minerals Corp and Dumas Contracting. The graduates of the Underground Miner Training program which was provided under the Matachewan Aboriginal Access to Mine Jobs Training Strategy (MAATS) were honoured in a community gathering on Thursday May 26 in Matachewan First Nation. This is the second group of trainees to graduate from under the MAATS program. The six new graduates will now move on to employment positions under Northgate Minerals Corp and Dumas Contracting at the Young Davidson mine site in Matachewan. The six graduates are David Batisse, Dustin Roy, John Cloutier and Chad Larkman of Matachewan First Nation; Katlin Maurer, of Beaverhouse First Nation and Kohl Porter, of Mattagami First Nation.
The full story is at this link. I post this good-news story to counter the usual propaganda put out by incompetent mining companies bent on excusing their failures. Here is a perfect example of blaming everybody else, which begins:
A shortage of mining specialists in Canada is hobbling the industry at a time when emerging giants India and China are pushing demand for ores and precious metals to record highs, experts say. “You can’t find good geologists,” Rene Marion, chief executive of AuRico Gold, a Canadian company with mining operations in Mexico, told AFP. “Hiring is a major, major problem,” echoed Jean-Marc Lulin, head of junior mining company Azimut Exploration.
You can read the rest of this litany of failure at this link. As these two stories that fall at opposite ends of a spectrum of optimism & pessimism, fact & fiction, success & failure, establish, there is no truth in the vacuous reports of shortages in the mining industry. Every day I get emails from promising young graduates who cannot find a job in the mining industry. They are all worthy of an opportunity, but so few mining companies care to reply to their resume submittals of care to give them a chance.
I recently employed a fellow who is brilliant and is doing a great job. But he had worked as a roofer’s assistant for six months as nobody in the mining industry would give him a chance. True his grads reflected the British system of grading that tells the truth rather than the north American system of grading which is but a pack of lies intended to boost professors’ egos and tenure prospects. But the mining industry was too conservative, stupid, hide-bound, or what ever to see past the fiction of inflated grades.
My point is that the mining industry faces no shortages. At least no real ones. There are people out there, educated, intelligent, eager, and willing. It just takes a bit of get-off-your-but by the mining industry to find them, bring them in, and give them the chance.
My advice: ignore the plaintive cries of incompetent people in the industry who say they cannot find people. Of course they cannot. They are not able to find or nurture people. They need to die off or go into retirement as fast as those they say are doing so. Which incidently is not true—all the old farts I Know in mining are still vitally active and ready to be so for a long time hence until they die of very-old-age.
If you have a shortage of mining staff, be inventive; be bold; go out and find competent people. One thing is constant: there has always been a steady supply of good people. Nothing has change in 100,000 years. The only trick is to find them and nurture them. And it can be done as the opening link to this posting proves.
Please let me know if you disagree.
Hi Jack. I enjoy your website, keep up the good work.
In response to your comment that there is no shortage of employees in the mining industry I would like to say you are blessed up there in Canada. Here in Western Australia we have a massive mining boom going on at the moment and there is not one company that would not kill for more skilled workers. Geo’s, Engineers, Fitters, whatever you have would be welcome here. Not a day goes by where a company does not announce a new project coming online or a extra billion dollars being invested in upgrading a project. I have been in mining for over six years now and I can tell you that there has never been more demand for workers that right now.
If you know of any geologists, send them to Western Australia. Better yet, send their details to me so I can get the ‘discovery bonus’ of a few thousand dollars that is offered by most companies.