Gold Fields CEO Nick Holland says the escalating shortage of skilled workers is a major concern for executives globally as the industry presses ahead with projects in increasingly tough and remote places.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – A worsening shortage of skilled workers is the top worry for mining executives globally as the industry presses ahead with projects in increasingly tough and remote places, the chief executive of world No. 4 gold producer Gold Fields said.
“A lot of people ask me what is my biggest concern. What keeps me awake? Having skilled people available to do the job and go to locations that ordinarily they might not be too keen to go to,” Nick Holland told the Reuters Global Mining and Metals Summit on Monday.
“That is one of the biggest challenges. We are looking to build a whole lot of mines in the future. And getting the right skills to build those mines is a challenge, not only for us, but for the various engineering companies,” he said. The Gold Fields project pipeline ranges from Ghana in West Africa to the Philippines.
Holland said part of the problem was demographic. The average age of skilled professionals in the industry, from engineers to geologists and mine planners, is widely estimated at 50 or above.
“The baby boomers are starting to get to retirement age. And there is a whole lot of them that are going to disappear very quickly,” he said, referring to the generation born in the two decades that followed the Second World War.
“If you look at the youngsters coming through, they are looking at other industries,” he said, naming finance and telecoms as examples of industries that university graduates are finding more attractive.
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