AMC Consultants’ Paul Gardner told International Longwall News that as the high salaries and the attraction of fly-in, fly-out wears off, more engineers are looking to work with mining consultancy groups, sometimes without being fully prepared for the current reality of the role.

 

The increasing number of junior engineers moving into consultancy work also means a shift for the more senior consultants, who find their work load now encompasses training, encouraging and mentoring junior engineers.

 

Gardner said many mining engineers were seeking work with consultancy groups for a lifestyle change, to avoid the isolation of minesites and to settle in city areas.

 

Coffey Mining principal mining engineer Brian White agrees that younger engineers are looking at consultancies as a career option, but says there is still a struggle to recruit and train people in competition with mining companies.

 

He says due to the skills shortages across all areas of the mining industry, the competition for experienced people is stronger than ever.

 

“Some consultant groups have strong working relationships with universities – like mining companies do – but the difficulty is they can’t offer quite the same thing,” White told ILN.

 

Courtesy AMC Consultants’ Paul Gardner.

 

“What we are seeing is because coal companies are able to and willing to pay much higher wages, there are still people actually leaving consultancy. There is still a difficulty in getting suitable people for consultancy work,” White said.

 

“We are also finding that younger engineers are doing a bit of technical training with consultancies, then going back into the industry and putting it into use, which makes them much more attractive as future consultants.

 

“They are doing a bit of in-and-out, in-and-out, with a view of ultimately being in the city in a mining company’s head office.”

 

Gardner said there has also been an influx of overseas applicants applying for consultancy jobs in Australia, only to find the job really was not what they thought it would be.

 

“Many are coming from an academic background and not from a practical experience sense – that causes some problems because they are not aware of the reality of the hands on work,” he said.

 

“Human Resources people are finding people with qualifications but ignoring the practical side and what the job entails, so we do need to get the reality of the job out there before people make the move.”

 

Gardner said as mining consultancies and the rest of the industry try to keep up with the boom, the biggest challenge of all is to maintain the quality of work and get the right people on board.

 

“People come in with high expectations and sometimes they fall out of the industry all together, so we have to rely on the older generation around the place to provide the experience and the guidance.

 

“The role of a consultant now is providing advice on the run, there’s no time to sit back and dwell on things, it’s about responding, simply because of a lack of people onsite.”