Published in the May 2005 American Longwall Magazine

"Over the last 15 or 20 years, the number of accredited mining engineering programs in the US has dropped dramatically,” said Grayson, who estimated the number had dropped from 26 down to 13. “The number of US graduates last year was 86, compared to an estimated demand of 300,” he said.

To make this problem even more complex, it is two-fold: a wave of workers are entering retirement age, and an expanding industry requires more new workers, yet the reduced number of mining programs has created a severe shortage of workers. “The problem is they have a huge gap, not only in experience but in familiarity with the kinds of situations you can get into that can be quite dangerous,” Grayson said.

While less programs equals less students and therefore fewer workers, Grayson said it went deeper than statistics. “Coal has had an acute problem just getting qualified miners. Many companies used to hire only experienced miners, but now they can’t do it and they’re going to take whomever they can get.”

Grayson also noted that the shortage was not isolated to one type of worker, but rather spanned the spectrum from miners to technical personnel to management. Because of this, many companies are scrambling to capture all the talent they can find. “[Operations] go around trying to hire temps for summer and permanent jobs, and unfortunately everybody’s trying to do that in every sector, so aggregates, metals, non-metals, all of them are trying to get students, and there just aren’t enough to satisfy demand,” he said.

“Eventually the shortage will be addressed, but unfortunately there will be a lag time of a few years,” said Grayson, “and the phenomenon is global.”

For example, Rio Tinto, Anglo-American, and Xstrata recently conducted a survey of worldwide mining engineering program enrollments, and are beginning to pursue recruits from the major mining countries systematically. “This type of concerted effort will challenge US operators in capturing their share of recruits.”

In addition to his department chair responsibilities at the University of Missouri-Rolla and his interim director duties for the school’s Energy Research and Development Center, Grayson is also the Union Pacific/Rocky Mountain Energy Professor of Mining Engineering and the director of the Western US Mining Safety and Health Training and Translation Center.