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INDUSTRY BULLETIN: Job woes? Experts say gold mining to become a growth industry amid recession
By Amy Fuller
Job seekers watching employment prospects wither and lay-offs mount amid the recession might consider joining the gold rush, and a northern Ontario school is hoping to educate that next wave of underground workers.
Many investors see gold as a hedge against inflation - when the dollar sheds value and can't buy as much, people hoard gold. In recent years, the price has hovered under US$1000 an ounce.
Mining consultant Alan Gorman says base metal prices dropped considerably after the economy collapsed last year. Now, companies are doing more exploration for gold, hoping to revive old mining sites or find new ones in Canada and Africa.
Gorman says companies like Vale Inco, Xstrata and Teck Cominco that primarily produce base metals have either closed mines or made cutbacks over the last nine months. Those that focus on gold, such as Barrick Gold Corp. and Kinross Gold Corp., are "on the upswing."
"In terms of new employment, I'd say you'll probably see more happening with the gold companies."
Someone has to extract the precious metal, and it's not a matter of simply shaking a pan and plucking out the nuggets.
The northern Ontario town of Haileybury is home to a mining school that hopes to benefit from a spike in applications as the gold sector enjoys a bull market.
Don Hillier, a professor at the Haileybury School of Mines about three hours northeast of Sudbury, Ont., runs a mining engineering technician program that prepares students for careers ranging from entry-level to management.
Over the course of two years, students complete modules by watching lectures and reading study guides online. Subjects include math, physics and chemistry, as well as technical communication and safety.
"A mine is like a miniature city," Hillier says, explaining the emphasis on technical coursework. "They can have their own water treatment plant, garages, and some even have their own hydro facilities."
Mines employ a variety of people, from engineers to pipe fitters to welders, "not just mining people per se," Hillier says. "They constitute only about one per cent of the overall workforce."
Until two years ago, the technician program required that students study at the Haileybury campus of Northern College of Applied Arts and Technology. Now, students enrol from as far afield as the Northwest Territories or Alberta.
In many cases, they continue with full-time jobs and study part-time, travelling to Haileybury only two weeks per year for the practical portion of the program.
The new online format is modelled after a graduate mining engineering program at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. Hillier says it works well for parents with school-age kids who can study without uprooting their children.
While he would like to incorporate more hands-on learning, it's difficult to arrange. Students have to take time off work and travel long distances to attend.
In May, three students graduated from the re-vamped technician program. The inaugural class began with 22, but many are studying part-time and will take longer than two years to finish.
Graduate Pamela Sword of Thunder Bay, Ont., came to the program in her mid-40s after a 25-year career as an insurance underwriter. Tired of adjusting to multiple buyouts, she took a voluntary severance package and enrolled at Haileybury.
Online study allowed moves to Sudbury, Marathon and Thunder Bay, Ont., so her husband could focus on his career as a mining co-ordinator. Sword also chose Haileybury for its emphasis on geology, a personal fascination.
She says the program is a good option for people who have been laid off from other sectors, particularly if they have technical experience or live in remote areas with mine facilities nearby. Sword had no technical background and found the math requirements difficult. She studied close to 12 hours a day and graduated with honours.
For the hands-on portion of the program, students wear mine lamps, hard hats, steel-toed boots and reflective overalls. They venture into an old exploration adit, a horizontal tunnel drilled in the side of a hill, to practise checking for loose material and surveying.
"We learned that bats look really large when you're looking through the scope of a total station," Sword says, laughing.
Graduates of the technician program without previous mining experience can expect a starting wage of $45,000 a year, or a minimum of $20 an hour, Hillier says. Companies generally offer bonuses or extra compensation for working in isolated areas.
Sword is now three weeks into a job as a geologist technician with Australian-based Magma Metals Ltd. She says Magma is exploring for precious metals such as gold, platinum, nickel and copper.
"They have a really good showing here in Thunder Bay."
Sword said she loves spending her days with a geologist at camp sites, looking for and identifying minerals.
"When you get magma intrusions and it changes the rock and minerals leak out, it's just, wow."
The work environment is a big change, though. During her first week, she used a four-wheeler to back a boat into a lake with mineral deposits at the bottom. She also carries 20-to 30-kilogram boxes full of rocks.
"Technicians get to do all the hard stuff," she says.
Cambrian College in Sudbury offers a similar two-year mining engineering technician program. Students at Cambrian can extend their studies by one year to study geological engineering technology or mining engineering technology.
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