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Future Mining Engineers Educational Development Strategy
Future Mining Engineers Educational Development Strategy
by
Malcolm Scoble
Department of Mining Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
and
David Laurence
School of Mining Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Abstract:
Significant developments in future mining systems, technology and best practices are emerging
that are driven by issues relating to human resources, competitiveness, environmental and social
responsibility, within the dynamics of globalization. It is proposed that the definition of the role
and attributes of the mining engineer in the mine life cycle needs to be viewed more holistically
in the face of increasingly more diverse and complex responsibilities. These developments are
motivating the need to consider a fresh approach to mining education and training at all levels for
industry.
Introduction:
10 years ago the Minerals Council of Australia published “Back from the Brink – Reshaping
Minerals Tertiary Education” (Minerals Council of Australia, 1998). Without changes, it was
suggested that Australia’s minerals education could be “pushed over the brink of viability as a
long term supplier of the graduates that Australian industry will need in years ahead.” The paper
pointed out “graduates often have a poor understanding of how their theoretical knowledge can
be applied in practice. They also tend to be unaware of the importance of communication and
“people skills”, how business decisions are made, OHS, the demands of life in (often remote)
operational settings and other significant issues facing industry” and “undergraduate education
should deliver technical excellence in the fundamental principles of science and engineering, an
understanding of broader issues facing the industry and the ability to continue to learn.” This
discussion paper was the catalyst for change in mining engineering education in Australia and one
of its tangible outcomes is Mining Education Australia, the joint venture between the top three
Australian mining schools. This and other initiatives have eased the supply shortages in terms of
quantity and quality but challenges will need to be met in the future.
The world of mining has changed dramatically in the past 10 years with the economic
development of China and India; record commodity prices; stability in some resource-rich
countries (e.g. South East Asia); instability in others (e.g. Africa); greater recognition of the need
for community engagement; and so on. Thus it is timely to analyse and attempt to describe what
skill sets a mining engineer needs to thrive in this dramatically changing environment.
The industry has expressed a greater commitment to new technology and practices as part of the
quest towards improved health and safety, competitiveness, sustainable development and
corporate social responsibility. Mining engineers who are strongly grounded in enabling
technologies and systems engineering, as well as in change management and innovation, will be
key prerequisites to success in technology transfer and process transformation for the next
generation mine. New mining systems technology, as well as process adaptation for best
practices, in the hands of a next generation of innovative mining engineers offers the solution to
addressing the new interactive issues that are emerging, for example, related to globalization,
human resources, automation and control, water and energy issues, and climate change.
The current issues in recruitment and retention of human resources, compounded by the ongoing
global mining boom and demographics-based HR crisis, have prompted significant recent
initiatives, although these have yet to look too far in the future. In Canada this has resulted in the
formation of the Mining Industry Human Resources Council, funded by the Canadian
government (http://www.mihr.ca). The Council collaborates with all communities of interest
(employers, educators, organized labour, Aboriginal groups, and others) to address human
resources challenges facing the Canadian minerals and metals sector. A related initiative in
Australia is the Mining Industry Skills Centre (http://www.miskillscentre.com.au). This has a
vision to create a "One Stop Shop" for both industry and government on all matters relating to the
training and development of a sustainable workforce to meet the mining industry's current and
future needs. The HR crisis also underlines the priority need to address mining education, not
only from the point of view of product quantity but also quality, relevance and alignment. Re-
engineering the mining education process is getting underway in some schools and recognized to
be a challenge that needs to be shared together by industry and academia.
A future mine blueprint would attempt to clearly show the integration of the next generation
mining systems architecture, technologies and processes. If this next generation mine can be
characterized reliably then it should be a basis for identifying not only the human capital, in terms
of the distribution of employees and work responsibilities, but also what then can be inferred as
the skill set and capability requirements. This in turn should be a model on which to construct an
educational development strategy. It seems logical that industry would be best served by relating
future mining systems to sustainability drivers and technology advances. There is then an ability
to account for human resources implications in its strategic planning. From the university
viewpoint, it is important to plan more strategically and anticipate the future mining needs
through proactive educational development.
A holistic view of mining engineering:
A more holistic view of mining engineering, based upon a strong framework of more diverse
systems for mine design and planning needs to be promoted. It is important to anchor the core
systems of mining, mineral processing and geology in the context of mining engineering. The
core systems traditionally bring together the interaction between the mineral resources, mining
and processing systems. Other engineering and applied science contributions support the
technologies and practices that account for equipment, power, water etc. Also, it is becoming
increasingly important to recognize the interdependence that exists between environmental and
social factors that now need to be related to traditional technical and economic factors in mine
design, planning and management, see Figure 1. It appears to be sensible that this more holistic
framework could be rooted in a paradigm of sustainable mineral resources development. The
need to account for social licence, environmental and social impact assessment, regulatory and
permitting constraints, risk assessment and management in mine design and planning is becoming
paramount. Also, the concept of the mine life cycle needs to be reflected in that framework,
encompassing exploration, development, construction, production, rehabilitation/reclamation and
closure. In this context, the mining engineer needs to become even more an integrator of diverse
skill sets and best practices, and a coordinator of an increasingly interdisciplinary team. The
management of projects and people based upon strong leadership and social intelligence are
fundamental to success in this role.
MINERAL
MINERAL
ENGINEERING RESOURCES
PROCESSING
SCIENCES MANAGEMENT
GEOSCIENCES MANAGEMENT
SCIENCES
MINE
OHS LIFE CYCLE: GROUND
MINING GEOMECHANICS EXCAVATION,
DESIGN ---
SCIENCES
VENTILATION PLANNING & MATERIALS
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND WATER, ENERGY OPERATION HANDLING
SCIENCES LAW
SOCIAL
ENVIRONMENTAL
SCIENCES ASSET
& SOCIAL
MANAGEMENT
SCIENCES
Similarly, the UNSW School of Mining Engineering has hosted a Sustainable Mining Resources
research group since 2000. Students working in this area generally have prior education in non-
mining engineering disciplines. Research areas include mine closure; risk and safety
management; sustainable development indicators in mining; sustainable mining in developing
countries and so on. Active collaboration is taking place both within Australia and more
particular with mining schools in India, China and South East Asia. The School also hosts
postgraduate coursework programs in mining engineering, designed principally for those in the
mining industry who wish to pursue mining engineering careers without having to complete a full
four year undergraduate degree or those who need a mining qualification to satisfy the Mine
Managers Certificate educational requirements or simply other professionals looking to enter the
mining industry. These alternative pathways to mining engineering have grown enormously in
popularity over the past 5 years.
The current human resources crisis has created a dire shortage of experienced specialists but this
will be compounded further by the need for a new breed of specialists as new technologies
become implemented. The implementation of automation and control in both underground and
surface mining systems is a particularly significant example, following on from the well
established advances in process control in mineral processing plants. Underground automated
drill-blast-transport systems in hard rock mines, particularly in block caving systems, are on the
verge of widespread operational implementation (albeit after more than 20 years of sporadic
research). The underground coal industry faces renewed advances in automated excavation, anti
collision and process control technologies. Autonomous truck haulage is imminent in surface
mines. Having the professional expertise to deal with these forms of excavation and transport
automation, in addition to further mineral processing and environmental impact mitigation
technologies will test the ability to take competitive advantage of the new technological advances.
The same could be said for communications and information systems technologies in facilitating
minewide information systems for enhanced production planning and control. These
technological changes to the operational environment are in the area of the core responsibilities
for the mining engineer. The reliability and cost effectiveness of such systems will impact
significantly on the mining engineer’s responsibilities. Above all, the considerations of systems
safety and human factors will be paramount, particularly with respect to the potential interaction
between automated systems and the workforce.
Figure 2 demonstrates the diverse and complex challenges to educational development for future
mining. The next generation of educational programs need to generate a bachelor’s graduate with
the ability to understand the holistic nature of mining engineering but with three professional
priorities. The first priority is to seek excellence in the ability to deal with the core technological
responsibilities. The second priority is to develop a fundamental understanding of the skill sets,
tools and best practices to shoulder the environmental and social responsibilities. The third
priority it to develop personal qualities and social intelligence, especially to gain the capability to
excel in an interdisciplinary environment. The bachelor’s degree is thus a foundation qualification
to enter the industry for the next stage of lifelong learning. That professional development will
likely see further educational and training episodes, potentially undertaken within industry or
returning to university for graduate programs. Companies are increasingly recognizing the need
to adopt this approach, not only to develop but also to retain their human capital. These programs
will likely continue to evolve to generate the ability for the mining generalist to assume a form of
specialism, for example, focusing on applied mining (such as geostatistics, rock mechanics,
blasting), environmental (such as groundwater, tailings management, Acid Rock Drainage), social
(such as policy and regulation, community relations) or management sciences.
A particular emerging challenge is how to deal with the professional support in-house required
for implementing and maintaining advanced technology mining systems. There appears to be at
least four routes, not necessarily mutually exclusive, to meeting this challenge. For example,
returning to the subject of underground mining automation, the first route is to develop further the
existing concept whereby mining engineering and/or electro-mechanical-computer engineering
undergraduates could take double degrees or minors. This generates a versatile graduate with
complementary strength in both fields: mining engineering and automation-robotics.
Ecosystem Integrity
Workforce Health and Safety
Environmental Footprint
Skills & Training: Lifelong Learning
Waste Management
Workplace Quality of Life
Reclamation‐Closure
Community Relations ‐ Social Licence
Energy Efficiency‐Power
Geomechanical‐Hydrological Control
Water Quality‐Conservation
Ventilation–Emergency Response
CO2 Emissions‐Sequestration
Rock Fragmentation – Transport
Geological reserves‐grade control
Minewide Information Systems
In‐situ mining‐processing
Automation & Control Systems
Systems Safety‐Human Factors
DESIGN & PLANNING
Integrated Mine‐Mill Processes
OPERATIONAL CONTROL Asset Management
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
The second route would be to implement focused Master’s programs that transition mining
engineering graduates from the aforementioned mining generalist into an automated mining
systems (AMS) specialist. This is to develop a basic capacity in communications, robotics,
monitoring and control technologies so as to ground the mining engineer in the fundamentals of
such subject areas. The emphasis in such development would be to gain professional capacity to
manage the operation and maintenance of automated mine production systems and their
associated personnel, legitimately taking responsibility for their production performance and
systems safety. The mine will still be dependent upon the specialist automation engineer and
technician (SAET), but that person will be focused on the architecture, hardware and software
infrastructure, in terms of technical integrity. SAET personnel would be recruited from
conventional electro-mechanical-computer technology backgrounds. In contrast, the AMS
specialist should be able to relate mining production performance parameters (for example:
rockmass behavior, fragmentation, grade control, production rates and costs) to technology
performance and risk (for example: availability, utilization and maintainability of the automated
mining system). Communications and teamwork between the AMS and SAET personnel would
be critical.
Mining Education Australia, the proposed national school of mining engineering is a formal
partnership between the MCA’s Minerals Tertiary Education Council (MTEC), Curtin University
of Technology, the University of NSW, and the University of Queensland. In the words of the
MCA’s Chief Executive, Mr Mitchell H. Hooke, “developing the collaborative university
program is part of the MCA’s nationally coordinated strategy for the minerals industry to
overcome the well-documented global shortage of professionals and tradespeople. Mining
Education Australia is being designed to strengthen our alliance with Australia’s premier
suppliers of mining engineering graduates and help alleviate the skills crisis by providing a
dependable source of well qualified mining engineers into the next decade” (Hooke 2005).
MEA in a nutshell provides a common curriculum for the final two years of mining engineering
education across the three institutions, which represent the three largest mining states. It is now in
its second year and overall, the program has succeeded in its goal of providing the best education
for its participating students of any mining program in the world. Initiatives include project-based
learning in many of the subjects, elimination of exams, group work and peer reviews.
The general engineering fraternity at universities worldwide has been evaluating the quality of
their educational experience provided to students in recent years. In a new approach to measuring
Australasian higher education quality, a survey was conducted in 2007 by the Australian Council
for Educational Research (ACER) on “student engagement”, defined as student’s involvement
with activities and conditions likely to generate high-quality learning. This built upon an earlier
North American National Survey of Student Engagement. Measures of student engagement are
aimed to provide information about an individual’s intrinsic involvement with their learning, and
the extent to which they are making use of available educational opportunities (ACER, 2008).
The survey used six scales in a questionnaire, designed to tap a range of what were considered to
be key educational Performance parameters that relate to engagement, see Table 1. These scales
demonstrate the increased efforts on the part of academia to understand students and to enhance
the effectiveness and efficiency of their educational efforts.
One ACER scale, work integrated learning, has been seen in Canada to significantly reinforce the
university learning experience through the implementation of a cooperative education (COOP)
model. Students are formally tutored in work related skill sets by a central campus COOP
professional group which also coordinates successively more responsible 4 month work terms
spent in industry. The UBC mining engineering COOP bachelor’s degree involves 8 academic
terms and 5 work terms, resulting in a 5 year degree period (http://www.coop.apsc.ubc.ca). The
value of such carefully managed work term experience, however, is significant in terms of
personal and professional development.
Scale Description
Academic Challenge Extent to which expectations-assessments challenge students to learn
Active Learning Student’s efforts to actively construct their knowledge
Student and Staff Interactions Level and nature of students contact with teaching staff
Enriching Educational Experiences Participation in broadening educational activities
Supportive Learning Environment Feelings of legitimation within the university community
Work Integrated Learning Integration of employment-focused work experiences into study
Many engineering academics are looking to the Master’s degree as becoming the professional
engineering degree of the future because of difficulties of cramming enough of the diverse
courses into the bachelor degree curriculum over four years (Galloway, 2007). (The Mining
Engineering undergraduate degree at UBC like many others was reduced from five to four years
in length in the nineties.) Other strategies include appending blocks of courses in relevant
disciplines onto a mining engineering degree, for example as a Minor in Management, or a
specialist area such as a Minor in Automation and Control, or Environmental Management, or
Community Relations. Another strategy, as discussed earlier, may be to recruit engineers or
scientists from advanced technology areas who themselves have completed Minors in Mining
Engineering. UBC offers a Certificate in Mining Studies, aimed to enable cross-training, later in
the career to acquire new skill sets for upward or lateral mobility in a professional career (Scoble
2007). The Certificate is based on a blend of internet-based courses and conventional short
courses (http://www.edumine.com/xedumine/ubcminingcertificate.htm ). This enables the
integration of learning into employment patterns. The recognition of the value of lifelong learning
in developing the mine’s human capital is beginning to be appreciated, as companies begin to
promote professional development opportunities with employees. This process will likely gain
momentum as the future mine transforms into a Learning Organization (Scoble, 2007).
University-Industry Relations
This paper has addressed the skill set required of future mining engineers. It needs to be
remembered that the universities and mining schools therein are where mining engineers develop
those skills. Without motivated and talented academics teaching these skills they will not be
transferred to the mining engineer of the future mine. The outcomes of Back from the Brink bear
repeating: “Research is not severable from issues surrounding education…. Research has a
significant role in:
1. promoting higher quality undergraduate education
2. developing the international standing of universities
3. establishing academic “nurseries”
4. transferring up to date technology to undergraduates.”
Furthermore, it stated that universities must reward behaviour “aimed at placing a priority on the
development of teaching excellence in tertiary education.”
In Australia, mining academics have struggled to obtain research funding from government and
especially in the case of non-coal projects, from industry. Mining engineers generally are
attracted to a career in academia if they can pursue their research interests. Furthermore,
universities are increasingly promoting staff predominantly on the basis of research performance.
Without funding, the research will not be carried out, promotions will not happen and the talented
staff will either leave the profession or not be attracted to it in the first place. Industry and
government need to support research capacity in the mining schools. Undoubtedly, it is sensible
for a mining company to seek the best world class research capacity on campus to undertake a
research task to address its R&D priorities. This capacity may well be located outside the mining
school on that campus. There is a host of excellent research, however, that can be very successful
in more applied areas that would be extremely supportive to a mining school. Industry has a role
to play in fostering research in and around mines that generate the highly qualified people that
will be the next generation of employees or academics. It also should consider investing directly
in mining schools in order to ensure optimum graduate recruitment: high quality graduates that
are aligned with industry needs (Scoble, 2008).
Conclusion:
The Minerals Council of Australia challenged the status quo with its discussion paper – Back
from the Brink – Reshaping Minerals Tertiary Education. It was a catalyst that enabled the
industry to fulfill its requirements for quality mining engineers in the period since its publication.
However, future mining engineers will require a fresh combination of interdisciplinary technical
and social skill sets, based upon sound knowledge of technology and leading practice. Equally
important, this must also be aligned with personal characteristics that bring innovation, ethics,
teamwork, leadership and a passion for mining. Looking to the future, it seems sensible to pursue
the ability to understand the characteristics of the future mine and to start to develop a longer term
vision of a strategy for mining engineering schools to prepare for the future expectations of
industry and society.
Mining is a very distinctive profession that will undoubtedly be transformed in the coming
decades. An important task will be to reshape mining education to align with the changing needs
that primarily appear to be driven by the dynamics of technological advances and sustainable
development. It will also be critical to reinvigorate the human and physical resources that serve
the educational process within our mining schools. This is a collaborative task for academics,
alumni, industry and government together. Also, there is no reason why educational collaboration
cannot involve global schools to the benefit of all.
Acknowledgements:
The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of students and staff at UNSW and UBC.
The views expressed in this paper are personal and should not be construed to necessarily
represent the formal viewpoints of the universities.
References:
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