EXPECTATIONS of continuing low exploration levels are being compounded by a shortage of suitable specialists in Western Australia.
According to some of the State’s miners, WA currently needs more mining professionals, with geologists heading the list of required experts. Mining engineers and metallurgists are others in short supply.
Two of WA’s biggest miners have found it difficult attracting and retaining staff.
A spokesman for BHP Billiton said the company had experienced “a certain tightness in some positions” (mainly mining engineers), while Hamersley Iron’s general manager human resources Michael Bisset recently told an industry breakfast that, while the industry faced attraction challenges, retention was the critical factor at Hamersley.
Mr Bisset said there had been a drain to the east coast and, on close inspection, the company had discovered it was paying insufficient attention to graduates pre-2001.
“Retention of graduates now draws a lot of focus,” Mr Bisset said.
In the junior to mid-cap sector, mining professionals can even be harder to come by because of the shorter-term nature of their work.
Managing director of the recently listed Rox Resources, Ian Mulholland, said he made sure he planned well in advance of his IPO to not only secure a drill rig but also a geologist.
Mr Mulholand said they were now hiring a second geologist and were finding that all those interviewed already had a job.
He said those already employed were taking advantage of the upbeat resources market to secure better, more long-term positions.
While Mr Mulholland believed that most projects could be progressed in current conditions, he said the lack of professionals ready to go was causing some delay.
“Two to three years ago you could call three or four contractors and they would all have someone within a week,” he said.
Now, he knew of one company that had been searching for a geologist for almost a month.
Leading mining industry groups consider the shortage to be serious, and they don’t expect any improvement in the situation in the near term.
Reg Howard-Smith from the Chamber of Minerals and Energy believes the shortage of professionals could begin causing delays to projects in the near future.
Minerals projects represented a high proportion of $32 billion worth of projects currently planned or under way in the State and professionals would play a major role in the success of those projects, Howard-Smith said.
Scotford & Fennessy director Nick Fennessy said the situation had become desperate in the past 18 months.
Mr Fennessy said migrants from South Africa, India and the Middle East had filled the shortage to an extent, despite the concern regarding foreign professional standards.
A recently released ABS report showed that WA had the second highest net migration growth rate of 0.99 per cent during 2003.
Professional Personnel managing director Steve Liversage said most junior companies he represented couldn’t find experts with suitable experience.
“If you look at all the job advertisements, most are looking for people with two to eight years’ experience. These people are harder to come by nowadays,” he said.
Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicate the State’s minerals industry has a higher proportion of employees with short job duration (less than three years) than the all-industries average.
With remuneration at levels well above the average, this does not seem to be the problem.
According to a CME publication on employee relations, earnings have been steadily increasing since the early 1990s, while the industry also commonly offers benefits such as medical insurance, accommodation and relocation assistance.
It seems much of the industry is aware of the problems associated with attraction and retention.
Last year mining industry employers spent on average $1,643 per employee on training, compared with the average across all industries of just $458 per employee, according to the ABS.
