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Skills needed for mining workforce
4 September 2007 - A major challenge for Newmont Waihi Gold was the ability to hold a skilled workforce, general manager Glen Grindlay told the AusIMM conference in Christchurch. Five years ago the ratio at local hard rock mines was 80:20 skilled to new workers and trainees, but today that ratio was reversed.
Staff were in demand in all sectors of the extractive industry in New Zealand. They were equally in global demand where the remuneration far exceeded what could be offered in New Zealand.
The Minerals Council of Australia estimates 70,000 new employees will be required in the mining industry there in the next years. That would provide an attraction for New Zealand staff.
With the mining workforce aging, the industry had to do better to make mining an attractive industry for school leavers and for graduates and to attract more women into the industry.
If the industry here can’t compete on pay levels, it had to compete on ‘work-life balance’ and increasingly a ‘whole family’ approach.
Another conference speaker Peter Hall, of the Department of Labour, said that in the past few years the number of people employed in the mining sector in New Zealand had grown from 2500 to about 4000. The mining sector pays the highest weekly wages of any sector in New Zealand.
Source: AusIMM conference
