Mining companies have been battling unprecedented labour shortages since mid-2021, according to official jobs data. However, the genesis of these shortages can be traced back more than a decade to the end of the last mining boom and a subsequent decline in graduate numbers.

Metals and minerals prices hit all-time highs in 2011 before the bubble finally burst. This caused capital spending on mining projects to plummet from a peak of US$164 billion in 2012 to US$66 billion by 2016, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

This led to a sharp decline in graduate job opportunities in the industry. Between 2008 and 2012, 68% of graduates from Australian mining engineering degrees found work at mining companies or in adjacent roles with consultancies, government bodies or research organisations, according to the Minerals Council of Australia. But from 2013-17, only 38% of graduates found employment in roles within or related to the industry - and the remaining 62% were presumably lost to the mining sector forever.

There was a delayed effect at the universities, where the total number of graduates from four-year mining engineering degrees at Australian, Canadian and American institutions climbed to a record high of 1077 in 2016, but then fell by almost half to 562 by 2020 (and presumably fell even further by 2023, given the continuing trend of falling enrolments).

Enrolments in mining engineering and geological engineering at Canadian universities fell 11% and 8%, respectively, between 2011 and 2020, even as total enrolments across all engineering disciplines rose 38%. In the US, mining engineering enrolments at the 14 largest programs fell 59% from 2015-23, according to data collected by Vladislav Kecojevic, chair and professor of mining engineering at West Virginia University. And in Chile, another important mining jurisdiction, enrolments in all mining-related disciplines fell 24% from 2015-20, according to the country's Mining Council.

Retention rates have been falling too. In Canada, for example, 33% of the 936 students who enrolled in mining engineering degrees in 2011 graduated in 2015, but only 21% of the record 1431 students who enrolled in 2014 graduated in 2018, and 14% of the 1249 students who enrolled in 2016 graduated in 2020.

In US, call for urgent discussion

In the US, the situation has become so dire that Kecojevic recently called on colleagues to convene for an urgent workshop on the matter.

In a letter to the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration and the heads of 13 other mining engineering programs, Kecojevic argued that there were nine root causes for the decline in graduations:

• Lack of exposure to and knowledge of the modern mining industry;
• Misperceptions that the mining industry is unsafe, unhealthy, damages the environment and contributes to climate change;
• Misperceptions that mining is only about underground coal mining with antiquated picks and shovels;
• Concerns of the lifestyle of mining engineers and a misperception that the industry offers narrow employment opportunities limited to remote or rural locations;
• Misperceptions that the industry is not sustainable;
• Fears that mining does not provide job security;
• Negative portrayals of the mining industry by the media;
• Misperceptions that there are no females in the industry; and,
• Concerns that the industry is not family friendly.

Kecojevic told Mining Journal that job opportunities and pay were not an issue, noting that graduates from American mining engineering programs in 2023 can expect to receive "four or five offers" for jobs paying at least US$72,000 - 30% more than the average starting salary for a US college graduate.

"I want to stay optimistic. But we need help from people outside of the industry at changing perceptions of mining among Generation Z. We've tried so many different approaches in order to attract students, but [the data] really shows that we are not succeeding. So it's time to think outside of the box," Kecojevic told Mining Journal.

China and others not suffering 

Kecojevic said the problem was most pronounced in North America, Australia and Europe. On the other hand, he noted that China, South Africa and some Latin American countries aren't suffering from graduate shortages.

China University of Mining and Technology has more students than all the mining programs in the United States combined, he said.

And Peru, where Kecojevic serves as a visiting professor at a major mining school, "has sufficient numbers of students, actually more than they need. But they also have really well-organised communities that participate [in the mining sector] and that spread the word about the benefits of mining to the country's economy."

US lawmakers have recognised the link between graduate numbers and the mining workforce. In March, senators John Barrasso (R-WY) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) introduced a bipartisan bill that aims to increase and improve opportunities for university mining and geological programs to prepare students to meet America's future energy needs.

If passed, the Mining Schools Act of 2023 will establish a grant program for mining schools to receive funds in order to recruit students and carry out research or demonstration projects related to minerals production.

Australia has a capacity problem

Meanwhile, the problem in Australia is as much about capacity constraints as it is a lack of interest from Gen Z, according to Kyle De Souza, president of Western Australian School of Mines (WASM) Alumni.

De Souza said WASM, which he graduated from with a degree in mining engineering in 2009, was currently at full capacity. He argued that schools were being held back from accepting more students because accommodation facilities were at full capacity and because public-sector wage caps restricted their ability to recruit experienced industry professionals to the classroom.

"Trying to find someone with a PhD that also has the practical knowledge of running a model or finding an orebody is very hard. They're unicorns, but you need to be able to pay for them," De Souza said.

WASM Alumni has helped bridge the knowledge gap by bringing in industry experts to teach alongside official lecturers.

"The PhDs still run the class, but you've got industry people there helping them out. That way, you've got industry knowledge being tipped in while the kids are learning," De Souza said.

"But we [WASM Alumni] are probably the only body which has a critical focus on bringing industry to university. And that's probably what's missing from a lot of these other schools."

To complicate matters, he said many of WASM's recent PhDs were international students from overseas, many of whom returned home during the coronavirus pandemic - taking the knowledge obtained during their studies with them.

As a long-term solution to Australia's mining skills shortage, De Souza said the industry would need to invest in the universities and not just rely on the federal government to provide all the funding. He said that if every producing company allocated a small royalty to minerals research and education - somewhere in the order of 0.01% - then this would be enough to address the problem.

"Build it and they will come: I think that's the model we have to go with," De Souza said.

"The extra capacity that we need in the industry, it comes during the boom. But you never really build that during a bust. So you really have to take on extra during the boom, to smooth it out. And it won't happen unless there's an investment in education and capacity."