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SKILLS

Recruitment rush favour of the candidate. He said this was
evident across a range of operational roles
in the open pit, underground and process-
ing sectors, as well as for trades staff in the
fixed and mobile plant industries.
ecruitment firms are experiencing their ia’s commodity exports are on track to hit a According to MPI, trades-based staff cur-
Rbusiest period in years as mines go record $281 billion in FY2020, according to rently have 2-3 offers on the table at any
deeper, skills shortages become more evi- the Office of the Chief Economist, and there one time, with a similar number of options
dent and companies start raising the stakes is a strong case mounting that the country’s available to those professional/technical
in a bid to attract the best available talent. resources industry has never been in better candidates on the lookout for the same po-
Demand for mining engineers, particu- shape. sition type.
larly those possessing strong technical With a myriad of job opportunities on the “There is certainly a lot more positions
qualifications for underground operations, horizon, recruitment firms such as Hays, available across most areas and this is
remains as high as ever due to the number Acacia and Mining People International causing a tightening of candidate availabil-
of suitable candidates being in increasingly (MPI) have been kept busy working out how ity,” Moore said. “Employers that are not
short supply. to fill the already high number of vacancies paying at least average wages are finding it
And that demand is only expected to in the sector. hard to attract and retain quality staff.”
grow, according to Australian resources “In my 12 years in the industry, I’ve never MPI general manager professional tech-
and energy group AMMA, which has really been this busy at this time of year,” nical Tony Turton added: “In the areas
forecast the country’s mining industry will Acacia director Abbi Vermey told Paydirt. where skills shortages exist, we are starting
require almost 21,000 new on-site opera- “Things never really used to kick off until to see some upward pressure on salaries.”
tional employees by 2024. after we got back from Indaba [conference In its January-June 2020 job report, Hays
AMMA’s forecast is based on a report by in Cape Town in early February]. This year noted high demand for RC and diamond
the Australian Government’s Department of my staff worked pretty much through the drillers and field assistants in Western Aus-
Industry which found 57 undeveloped min- Christmas period because we had just so
ing projects – carrying a combined value much work on. Surely that’s a sign of good Abbi Vermey
of $41 billion – were either “committed” or things to come.”
“likely” to be in production within the next MPI general manager workforce and la-
five years. bour hire Shane Moore described the cur-
Couple that with the expectation Austral- rent job market as “very buoyant” and in

As more mines head deeper, the demand for underground
mining engineers is increasing but recruiters currently have
only a small pool of candidates to choose from

Page 50 FeBRUaRY 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT