As conditions improve following the global financial crisis, the industry once again faces the prospect that the demand for skilled mining professionals will far outstrip the supply.
Attracting and retaining the best staff now becomes crucial for the industry if it hopes to capitalise on the expected boom in commodity prices.
The following three companies share their experiences of the global financial crisis and explain their plans to tackle the skills shortage.
OZ Minerals
OZ Minerals teetered on the edge of oblivion for much of the 2008-09 financial year, struggling with loan debts of $987 million.
However, the company held on long enough to sell nearly all its assets to China’s Minmetals Group (MMG) for US$1.2 billion.
While helping pay back the debts, the divestments also meant the company’s workforce was significantly reduced.
According to OZ Minerals head of human resources Samantha Wilkinson, the company currently employs 290 employees and 406 contractors.
“A key priority this year is the potential development of underground mining at our Prominent Hill project in South Australia,” she told Australian Mining.
“If approved, our on-site work force will need to be increased with both permanent staff and contractors.
“Our success ultimately depends on our ability to attract, train and retain high performance and high potential employees.”
In order to fill these vacancies, Wilkinson said the company will participate in employee referral programs, local community pre-employment programs and employment exhibitions.
“As a young company positioned for high growth, we are able to offer competitive remuneration with potential for bonuses and shares,” she said.
“We will continue with our current employee referral process to ensure we are able to recruit in roles that are traditionally tough to fill.
“We also have a commitment to employee development and career progression.
“For instance, new employees also have access to on-the-job coaching and mentoring from our highly experienced professionals.”
MMG Century
The Century zinc mine in Queensland was one the former OZ Minerals assets sold to MMG.
According to the mine’s general manager Karl Spaleck, the mine currently employs around 540 employees and 250 contractors.
“Century was heavily impacted by the dramatic fall in world zinc prices in 2008,” he told Australian Mining.
“To keep the mine operating under these difficult economic circumstances, we had to focus on those areas that were absolutely essential to production.
“This led to a number of changes across the business, which unfortunately resulted in downsizing in some areas.”
According to Spaleck, the company was fortunate to have “a very capable and loyal team at Century,” who were committed to seeing the mine through the downturn.
“Many of the people who were made redundant have expressed an interest in returning to the operation in the future,” he said.
MMG has now started to recruit additional staff, particularly maintenance technicians, for the mine.
According to Spaleck, there is still a demand for professionals like engineers, geologists and metallurgists.
“We do not believe the skills short age for these kinds of professionals ever went away,” he said.
“Recruiting continues to be a challenge, but we hope to offer people a role in a company with a bright future, sustainable business plans and competitive remuneration packages.”
The company also launched the ‘Refer-A-Friend’ program last year.
“We recognise that our employees know the type of people they would like to call a workmate,” Spaleck said.
“So the program encourages them to refer a friend, family or community member that they feel would be suitable for a position.”
Panoramic Resources
Panoramic Resources currently employs around 500 workers across two under ground nickel sulphide mines in Western Australia.
According to the company’s manag ing director Peter Harold, the original workforce had had to be cut back by around 25% thanks to the global financial crisis.
“Our focus was on the profitabil ity of our two projects, so we basically went about optimising both of them,” he told Australian Mining.
“We were originally producing more nickel but not making much money, so we decided to reduce the amount produced.
“This obviously meant less people were required, so there were some redundancies.”
Harold said the company planned on keeping the current reduced levels of production, but is looking to expand some of its other activities; meaning new staff would be required.
“We do have one smaller open pit project under care and maintenance at the moment and if we restarted, it would employ around 20 to 30 people,” he said.
“We are also significantly cranking up our exploration expenditure up, which will require more staff.”
Harold said it was important the company becomes an employer of choice ahead of the skills shortage.
“We try to provide incentives like cash bonuses and equity participation to differentiate ourselves from other organisations,” he said.
“Safety is also our number one value, because people are going to be more attracted to working in a safe environment.
“We also aim to make sure there are opportunities for career progres sion and on-the-job training.”
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