Fewer graduates portends problems for mining

One of the major challenges facing today’s mining industry lies in building a continuing supply of young engineers — not only in mining and metallurgy but in other disciplines such as electrical and mechanical. “We’ve got to feed new engineering graduates into the system who will bring new ideas, new techniques, to the industry” says Tom Pugsley, chairman of the Canadian Mineral Industry Education Foundation. Pugsley, a mining engineer, is director of mining engineering and research at Falconbridge Ltd.

Formed 22 years ago, the Education Foundation is an industry- supported, non-profit organization whose specific mandate is to attract and encourage more top-flight young people to choose engineering careers in Canada’s mineral industry.

It does this largely by granting scholarships, at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level not only at university mining and metallurgical engineering departments, but to undergraduates in their final 0000,0600 years of study in mechanical/ electrical engineering departments.

The scholarships range in value from $1,000 to $5,000.

The foundation considers it has done a pretty successful job so far in its relatively short history, Pugsley told The Northern Miner in an interview.

“Over 360 bachelors, masters and PhDs in mineral engineering disciplines have been supported by the Foundation’s scholarships,” he said, “or about 20 engineers per year.”

But, he said, there are warning signs for the industry in that enrolment in engineering schools across the country is falling off, particularly in the mining engineering courses.

As a result, the number of students sponsored by the foundation has also declined, to a worrisome extent.

In the years from 1983 to 1986, for instance, the foundation provided scholarships to about 40 students each year. For the 1987-1988 period, this shrank to 32 and rises to only 34 in the 1988-89 period.

The fall-off at the schools is also expressed in the number, and even quality of the applicants to the Foundation for its scholarhips, Pugsley said.

Just a few years ago, there were as many as 110 applicants per year. This fell to 61, or almost half, last year. Of the applicants, he said, the foundation will generally accept only about one in three for scholarship award.

In certain sectors the quality of students seeking support has declined, the foundation chairman noted, although he could offer little in the way of explanation for it.

What is obvious is that the Canadian mining industry lags well behind other countries such as Japan, Sweden, Finland, France and West Germany in attracting engineers into their mineral industries. “In France, for example,” Pugsley said, “a mining engineer is a top dog, with much greater status than he will have in Canada.”

Pugsley is one who believes mining companies make a serious mistake when they trim their engineering staffs during the lower end of the boom or bust cycles in the industry.

Mining engineers for instance, he argues, need practical experience, and even in difficult times, mining companies should take extraordinary measures to hire engineering students, during the summer period.

“The industry should accept responsibility to provide this kind of work experience for engineers,” he said.

This Fall, the foundation plans a vigorous financial campaign, seeking both more money and further representation among industry members. There are currently 35 companies, including most of the major base metal and gold- producing companies in Canada, which are contributing members, and the foundation hopes to broaden that base.

The largest single contributor to the foundation is not in fact in mining at all. It’s the J. P. Bickel Foundation, which in 1988 contributed $25,000, or about 30% of the $80,000 total that came from member companies.