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Douglas Morrison is the President and CEO of the Sudbury-based Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) and network director, Ultra-Deep Mining Network.
The mining industry, in Canada and elsewhere, is facing major challenges — now brought into sharp focus by weak demand and low prices. But the problems within the mining industry have been developing for some time and it is naive to think that increased metal prices, through increased demand, will solve this. And although ‘cost-cutting’ that most companies are using may limit some damage in the very short term, it will make it all the more difficult to go on to address the real issues — deep-seated issues that have been ignored for too long.
There are essentially five issues the mining industry Canada needs to address: people, mine productivity, environmental performance, exploration, and new mine development. Each of these will be discussed in turn over the next few issues and I believe that collective action by the industry is the only real way forward. But — first things first —people.
The demographics of the mining industry are reaching crisis proportions. For several years, the federal Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR) has issued reports projecting the future demand and supply of every category of employee, highlighting the developing chasm of a shortfall of well over 100,000 over the next 10 years.