“If you stop looking at the headlines and look at what the activity in the Australian mining industry is right now, it’s as high if not higher than it has ever been.” Kinetic Group’s boss Derek Hunter said, speaking to Rockhampton`s The Morning Bulletin .�
“We have got significant new growth in productivity in the mining and resource sector in Australia from 2013 onwards.”
He said over 13,000 mining machine operators, 6,000 resource sector graduates, and 7,000 mine-ready tradespeople were needed in Queensland’s mining sector by 2015. As of April, there were 20 mining and gas projects in Queensland alone, amounting to more than $64 billion in investment in the mining and resources sector.
This BHP Billiton’s Caval Ridge and Daunia mines already being built delivers a total of 2450 mining jobs in mining construction and during operations.
Mr Hunter said the danger was “this mining boom to bust mentality. If something stopped booming, then surely it had bust.
“We have to change people’s heads about that – <a href=”https://iminco.net/mining-companies-australia/” title=”mining companies in Australia” />mining companies have shareholders to satisfy so action must be taken as soon as there is difficulty.
“Certainly (BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance) are cutting back on staff, they have closed a couple of mines in the past few months, however they have absorbed most of them back into the organisation.”
These comments follow a report in May by Kinetic Group (the re-branded face of Mining Industry Skills Centre).
The report found that major industry workforce growth, a large non-resident,� a high turnover rate and ageing workforce are key factors compromising the resources sector’s ability to take advantage of the worldwide commodities boom.
It found the annual turnover in the sector, including contractors, is 24.4%. Of all separating employees, 18.4% left within the first 12 months of employment. The turnover burden to industry is conservatively estimated at $140 million annually for direct costs of recruitment, mining induction and mine-ready training.
The non-resident workforce is on the rise, with one third of current employees living more than 300km away from their place of work and non-resident workers (FIFO and DIDO) had a turnover rate more than double the rest of the industry.
New entrants “cleanskins” into the mining industry are proportionally older than the existing mining workforce
“If the Queensland Mining Industry is to grow a workforce to meet productivity goals, we must improve our capacity to introduce new workers to the industry in a timely way. Industry must do significantly more to create pathway programs and foster the development of school leavers,” Mr Hunter said.
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Australian Mining activity “higher than it`s ever been”
