Mining’s talent shortage: workforce risk and project delivery lessons for engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on MINING.com
30 Second Briefing
Mining executives now rank labour, not capital, as the main constraint, with a 2024 MiHR survey showing 70% of 15–30-year-olds would not consider mining careers and Canadian mining-related enrolments falling from 1,400 in 2014 to 800 in 2020, declining 10% annually from 2016–2020. Rob McEwen, chairman of McEwen Inc., warns of an “acute shortage” as over half of the US mining workforce is expected to retire within three years and 46% of Gen-Z mining and energy workers plan to quit, even as demand for critical minerals and battery metals accelerates project pipelines.
Technical Brief
- MiHR links safety, inflexible rosters and environmental concerns as primary reasons youth reject mining work.
- In Canada’s mining workforce, 20% are 55+ while only 5% are under 25, skewing site experience profiles.
- US forecasts show over 50% of mining workers retiring within three years, stripping institutional safety knowledge.
- Deloitte reports 46% of Gen‑Z mining and energy workers intend to quit within two years, destabilising crew continuity.
- Fourteen consecutive years of declining Canadian mining‑related enrolments reduce the pool for future technical and safety-critical roles.
- Enrolments in Canadian mining programmes fell from 1,400 (2014) to 800 (2020), shrinking formal safety training pipelines.
- Misperceptions of mining as “pickaxes and environmental destruction” obscure current reliance on high‑technology, engineered controls and ESG‑driven safety systems.
Our Take
With gold reserves already flagged as at their lowest level since 2020, the talent pipeline issues MiHR highlights in Canada point to a medium‑term risk that technically complex gold and critical minerals projects in our database (such as KSM in BC) struggle to convert resources into reserves and then into operating mines on schedule.
The 14‑year decline in Canadian mining programme enrolments contrasts with the surge of US public funding into critical minerals developers in another recent piece, suggesting North American project pipelines for battery metals and rare earth elements may be constrained more by skilled labour availability than by capital in the next three years.
Gen‑Z quit intentions of 46% in mining and energy roles imply that operators of remote projects like Greenland’s Sarfartoq rare earths asset will likely face higher safety and productivity risk unless they redesign roles around automation, shorter rotations, and clearer career paths to retain younger technical staff.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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