Miner change
"Rio Tinto Coal short-term planning superintendent David Bennet didn't follow the typical route to become a mining engineer...after finishing high school Bennet began driving heavy machinery...
After all those years I dodged going to uni it was time to step up and get some qualifications just to complete the learning curve, says Bennet....
Bennet then began a diploma of Mining Engineering at the University of NSW which he completed part-time.
While many mining graduates complain they don't learn enough practical knowledge at university, Bennet found the experience to be just the opposite. When I went to uni I found I learnt a whole lot about the mining industry that I didn't know before...It opened my eyes to a lot of different types of mining operations like underground mines and open-cut mining.
CareerOne, The Daily Telegraph, Henry Budd, 08/03/08, p1
Booming mining's no longer the pits
"From the pits of Australia to the coalfields of Wyoming, mining companies like Rio Tinto are hunting for people to address a dire shortage of workers. A decade ago, with prices slumping, the sense of mining as a sunset industry left it with a workforce with grey hair. But these days, the industry is struggling to meet burgeoning global demand for iron, copper, and other key commodities....
The Minerals Council of Australia, in a recent report, estimated that by 2015 Australia alone would need 70,000 employees on top of the 120,000 it has now to keep up the demand.... Mining recruiters say that industry salaries have climbed 20 per cent in the last two years. Yet mines are so short of workers that projects are being delayed as production costs rise."
SMH, Wayne Arnold and Heather Timmons, 03/02/07, p6
Women's pay lags as men mine the boom
"The total earnings of a typical male working full-time in the mining industry have risen to just under $100,000 a year, about $12,500 more than those of men in the next best-paid sector, finance and insurance...
A miner now earns nearly $20,000 more than the average finance and insurance worker and more than $30,000 above the national average if only ordinary-time earnings are counted."
SMH, Matt Wade, 23/2/07, p6
Special Report: engineering & mining
"The 2007 Australian mining sector story reads like the happy ending in a fairytale. After years of slogging it out underground in remote areas of the country, they are the kings of the world and leaders in safety standards and technological developments...
The resources boom is being driven by China and India, says Professor Bruce Hebblewhite, head of the school of mining
engineering at the University of NSW. It's a demand unlike we've seen before. Undergraduates in their final year are, by April, already tossing up between three or more job offers. Salaries are sky high because there just aren't enough engineers to fill the jobs...
Sandy Tickell went into mining engineering because she thought it might provide some great opportunities ...I hadn't really thought about how diverse a profession it was, Tickell says. When I was studying you really focus on the one aspect of mining engineering. Now I see how many areas you are responsible for: from looking at safety and processes to working with teams of people...."
SMH, Margie Sheedy, 10/02/07, p8-13
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