Mining companies face talent shortages as electric vehicles increase demand for metals

Jonathan Little, who attends the University of Kentucky, is among the legions of students from around the world who mining industry You can’t afford to lose, but you’ve already done it.

Little, 20, considered a career in mining, but chose to study a branch of engineering that will likely require him to design truck engines. That was much more attractive to him than working in a coal mine, as many of his college mates do after graduation.

“That’s not the career I want,” Little said.

The decisions made by Little and other students herald a talent shortage for the mining industry as it prepares for a wave of aging worker retirements.

By the end of this decade, fewer graduates will have the skills to build and operate mines that produce lithium, nickel, copper, and other metals to power manufacturers of electric vehicles, solar panels, and other renewable energy technologies.

Enrollment in U.S. mining engineering programs fell 46% between 2015 and 2020, according to a survey by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration (SMME). The same problem affects major mining countries like Canada, South Africa and Australia.

“We’re going to end up with people not trained to operate the mines at a time when mining really needs to be done for the transition to electric vehicles,” said Mike Armitage, who sits on the board of directors of fluorspar miner Tertiary Minerals Plc. .

The talent crisis is coming just as automakers prepare to build millions of electric vehicles. Many plan to have fully electric fleets by 2030. The batteries and wiring for all those motors will require significant increases in metal production.

Many students are frightened, say professors and industry executives, by mining’s historic reputation as a dangerous industry that pollutes the environment. That stereotype was reinforced just three years ago when 270 people died after the collapse of a tailings dam owned by Vale SA at an iron ore mine in Brazil.

Aging workforce

More than half of miners are over 45 and 20% are over 60 and nearing retirement, according to a Mercer study.

The China University of Mining and Technology, considered the best mining school in the country, enrolled more mining engineering students in 2020 than the entire United States, primarily to supply the growing local coal sector, according to the SMME survey.

Now Western universities, trade groups and companies are rushing to recruit new students as high school seniors finalize applications and many freshmen college students begin to choose their area of ​​study.

Concerns about the looming talent shortage even led Freeport-McMoRan Inc CEO Richard Adkerson to meet personally with University of Arizona students this year to influence their career choices.

The Western Australian School of Mines (WASM) is phasing out its petroleum engineering program and transforming it to focus on renewable energy.