America’s Security May Depend on Critical Minerals, But Workers Scarce
Around 20 percent of workers in the mining, oil and gas sector are over 55, according to the BLS. In 2015, 43% of surveyed professionals in oil, gas and mining firms said the loss of talent due to an aging workforce would become a problem in the next six to 10 years, according to a Society for Human Resource Management study. Now it’s six years later and Hammond says this percentage is much higher. Recruiters are now scrambling to find qualified replacements to fill positions in critical mineral mining, says Russell Sullivan, a managing partner at Accelerated Data Decision, a recruiting firm that works closely with mining employers. Geological engineering programs are also having a hard time recruiting students, says Hammond. Critical minerals have become increasingly important in recent years because they are key components in high- tech personal devices, green technologies like solar panels and defense systems like jet fighter engines. The U.S. imports most of its critical minerals, and both the Trump and Biden administrations have sought to boost domestic mining of these minerals. To fill the needed positions, employers are raising pay. Still, young people aren’t entering the industry at a sustainable rate. It’s going to take more than a marketing push to retain younger mine workers, Hammond says. It’s going to take education about the role of mining. Gaze at any item in your living room, kitchen, or garage. Odds are half of its parts were pulled from the ground — the lithium from minuscule phone batteries, the aluminum buried inside of coffee makers, the gold in TV circuit boards, says Joyner. They didn’t appear in midair. “We’ve had at least two generations who have been raised through the Harry Potter notion of commodities,” says Hammond, the mining economist. “You wave your wand and they just appear. Where are you going to get the materials to build all of those windmills?” Sicurella is an intern on NPR’s business desk
This recent story by a National Public Radio reporter tells America what Alaskans have known for a long time — America needs mining but is very short of the miners to do that critical work. BY SAVANNAH SICURELLA, National Public Radio America’s mines are open for business. Not for coal necessarily, but definitely for the critical minerals seen by the Biden administration as essential for economic and national security, like lithium to power batteries or aluminum for wind turbines. But there’s a hitch. Companies are struggling to hire miners. Mining and geological engineering employment is estimated to grow 4% percent from 2019-2029, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As demand keeps rising for these minerals, there are fewer skilled employees to fill job openings in the industry. “We need more workers,” says mining consultant Catherine Joyner. “It is not going to be sustainable for our industry if it stays at the level that it is.” Like many employees in the U.S., mine workers have used the pandemic to reassess their careers. Many have pivoted to new professions or retired completely, says mining economist David Hammond. Mining for critical minerals and metals is not easy work. In both underground and surface mines, workers operate heavy machinery as big as houses and deal with explosives. On the professional side, engineers, metallurgists, and mine managers design and coordinate mine operations. Jobs in the industry are well-compensated. The average salary of an underground mining machine operator and extraction worker is $56,000, and mining and geological engineers make upwards of $90,000, according to May 2020 figures from BLS. Alaska miners in 2020 earned on average $112,000.
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www.alaskaminers.org I The Alaska Miner I September 2021
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