The puzzle of skills shortage in mining

THE RECRUITMENT industry has shown an ominous trend of mining professionals either migrating to different sectors, or starting new lives abroad. This is on the back of a Human Sciences Research Council confirmation of a severe skills shortage in South Africa across science, technology, engineering, accounting and maths.

Many South African mines are having to dial back their lifespan as the industry buckles under the strain of labour disputes, the climbing cost of continued exploration, and declining profits.

Amid persisting rumours of pending retrenchments, professionals within this sector are rightly fearing for their jobs and looking elsewhere for greener pastures and job security. The resultant skills drain within the mining sector has dealt the industry a severe blow.

One of the online recruitment portals showed the number of CV registrations from May to July as a whopping 4 728; and job applications in April totalling 14 362 – the portal’s lowest since the beginning of the year. Mining Weekly reports Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu as saying that South Africa loses more than half of its technical graduates in mining to other sectors of the economy, in their first five years of employment. This figure, she says, increases to around 70 percent within 10 years of employment.

A salary survey by Career Miner has revealed that South African professionals in mining earn salaries competitive even to countries like Canada and the US. These are generally lower than in Australia, which can be as much as 60 percent higher than other regions. Interestingly, though, the survey also found that 75 percent of mining engineers in South Africa with six to 10 years’ experience reportedly earn more than even their Australian counterparts. So, why the high South African salaries?

A continued skills drain has seen mining bosses dangling lucrative remuneration packages in front of skilled professionals in a bid to hook potential recruits.

But perhaps we should turn our attention to the real question: “How are the mining bosses themselves responding to industry change?” DARRYL DEVAR VIA E-MAIL