May Cornish Mining Sundowner- filling the mining workforce gap

It was good to be in the great outdoors again last night at Falmouth's Chain Locker, the first time since last August. Over 15 were in attendance enjoying the long summer evening.

Last month I published "If we are to save the planet we need more mining, not less". Despite the high carbon footprint of mining, which has led some environmental groups calling for a curb on mining activities, it is essential for the green transition, in the manufacture of renewable sources such as wind turbines and electric vehicles.

However a major workforce gap threatens the ability of nations to successfully achieve their critical mineral ambitions. Available university courses in mining and mineral processing have decreased markedly recently in the western world, in contrast to China, which has over 38 mineral processing schools and upwards of 44 mining engineering programs. Central South University, China’s largest mineral processing programme, has 1,000 undergraduates and 500 graduate students alone ready to accomplish China’s mineral ambitions (see posting of 15th October 2018).

Cornwall's Camborne School of Mines closed its mineral processing degree course several years ago, although it still runs an MSc course in mineral processing. However, until recently it looked like we were seeing the demise of its undergraduate mining degree as in September 2020  news came that the University of Exeter had announced a plan to ‘pause’ recruitment to the BEng Mining Engineering programme at CSM for the 2021-22 academic year, but stressed that it hadn’t been scrapped, instead recruitment has been paused while it looked to reshape the opportunities to study mining and related topics. 

So it was good to talk last night to Pat Foster, the Director of of CSM, and Senior Lecturer Matthew Eyre, about the good news that the University of Exeter has been working with industry, associations and professional bodies to address the skills shortage facing the mining industry. As a result, CSM has reshaped the opportunities for students wishing to study Mining Engineering with the launch of its two new 4-year BEng programmes, one part-time and one Degree Apprenticeship, in September of this year. These new programmes have been developed to help upskill those already holding roles within the mining industry, who want to develop their career. 

With Pat Foster and Matthew Eyre

Both programmes will be co-taught by faculty staff at CSM. Students will study a broad range of topics: the underlying maths, digital, geology and physics skills that inform engineering, then mine design, operations, processing, automation, risk, safety, economics, environment and governance. All students must be sponsored by their employer who will pay the fees on behalf of the student directly to the University for the part-time programme or via the apprenticeship levy for those eligible for the Degree Apprenticeship programme. More details of these programmes can be found on the CSM website.

The next sundowner will be at the Chain Locker on Thursday June 15th. I will miss that one, but will be at the Chain Locker on June 5th and 7th with delegates from Biomining '23 and Sustainable Minerals '23 respectively. Please feel free to join us if you are around.

@barrywills