Dire warnings over statutory staff shortages
A critical shortfall of statutory staff will hit Bowen Basin mines by 2015, according to a leading skills training provider. Mining Industry Skills Centre says the current crop of workers is set to retire just as the region reaches unprecedented production.
Derek Hunter.
Mining Industry Skills Centre general manager R&D, Deb Jones, told a seminar at Aimex 2011 that mining companies had failed to implement adequate training plans to ensure a successful legacy of statutory staff.
Jones says the Centre expects the shortfall to hit by 2014. She said there would be an extra 56 supervisor technician jobs by 2013, an additional 1,988 by 2014 and another 1,086 in 2015.
Skilled operators, electricians, diesel fitters, geoscientists and senior skilled worker positions will present similarly daunting requirements, Jones says.
Chief executive of the Centre, Derek Hunter, told AJM skills shortage was a global problem and of such an extent that it would provide an imperative to industry to review its practices.
“Worldwide we are beginning to recognise that skills shortage is the biggest challenge to the ability of the mining industry to expand. Obviously technology becomes one of the key answers and it challenges a very conservative industry."
Hunter cited a recent report by Ernst and Young that listed skills shortage as the number two business risk behind sovereign risk facing miners in the coming year.
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