The Young Mining Professionals (YMP) association, in the UK, held its launch event in London last month, where “like-minded” individuals from within the UK met to discuss the opportunities that exist for young people in the country’s mining sector and abroad.

Private-equity investment firm Tembo Capital Management investment analyst and YMP founder Catriona Beadel tells Mining Weekly that YMP will host a variety of such events going forward, which are designed to develop the skills and knowledge of its members, ranging from talks by industry leaders to mentoring dinners and drinks events, thereby providing ample opportunity for members to expand their networks and identify future career and business prospects.

“YMP aims to raise the profile of the talent and skills of its members within the UK and across the globe,” she states.

Beadel says that, having spent the early part of her career as an exploration and then resource geologist, her network was often confined to those that she had met and worked alongside on specific projects, often at remote mining camps.

“When I moved across to the financial side, working in a mining private-equity fund, the development of my network became an absolute necessity. “I attended several of the networking groups in London and, despite having met some very interesting people and handed out numerous business cards, I felt I was not making the most of the opportunities,” she says, explaining the reasons she felt there was a need to establish YMP.

Beadel comments that it is her belief that a young professionals network will be a good way to meet people in the same situation as herself. She says that to walk into a room and feel like being among contemporaries rather than feeling like the “junior” will allow more meaningful interactions.

“After all, the young professionals of today will be the mining leaders of tomorrow. No group existed in London, so I thought I would start it up,” Beadel states.

She notes that Tembo provided the sponsorship for the first networking drinks event and has been supportive of her establishing the group. However, Beadel remarks that she would consider this a personal venture.

“I am supported by an absolutely fantastic committee, without whom the group would never have got off the ground. So perhaps this is more a collective venture – young professionals rallying around each other to make the group most effective!”
Beadel mentions that the current generation of young professionals has potentially only seen the “bust” side of the mining industry. She says that it is hard to enter and advance in a sector that is suffering financially.

“Jobs are scarce, particularly for graduates, with companies opting to cut their graduate training programmes and cap raises for those lucky enough not to be cut loose.

“I entered the industry at the height of the boom and I got a year or so glimpse into the excitement and optimism of the good times. However, that cannot be said for the younger members of our group; therefore, it is important to keep them motivated,” she comments.

Beadel highlights that, particularly with the UK, the domestic mining scene is very small, unlike Canada, Australia or South Africa, and there are not that many opportunities to gain field experience at home. She says that, this means that young people will need to be more flexible with where they are willing to go to find work, and that brings with it challenges of competition for jobs as well as requiring a visa to work abroad.

“I also think that the general attitude towards the mining industry in the UK is apathetic. “Many of the older generation will have seen the closure of our coal mining industry in the north of the country and the subsequent loss of jobs as well as the closure of the tin mining industry in Cornwall and will probably not have encouraged the younger generation into a field which they associate with failure,” Beadel points out.

However, she believes that things are changing. Beadel notes that there is a burgeoning renaissance of mining in Cornwall, driven by rising commodity prices and advances in technology.

She says that mining companies, such Wolf Minerals, Strongbow Exploration, New Age Exploration and Cornish Lithium, are all currently active in the south-west of the country and that has brought excitement back into the sector. “In fact, at the Mines and Money Awards in 2015, the UK won the ‘Best Country’ [award],” Beadel points out.

Nonetheless, she laments that the top young people in the areas of science, technology, engineering and maths in the UK are not choosing to go into mining.

“Areas such as tech, renewable energy and infrastructure have much better optics and buzz around them. “I think what would be fantastic is to elevate mining into that category by demonstrating that it underpins all those industries and, in fact, there are incredible opportunities for the application of tech and renewables to modern mining. “I would hope this generation of young professionals would lead the charge in modernising the industry,” Beadel contends.
She says that the current UK government is supportive of mining domestically, which is a great advocate for the industry. Beadel points out that the UK has a long mining history, noting that, indeed, much of the country’s wealth in the eighteenth century stemmed from the extraction of minerals.

However, she says, it is London’s prominence on the global mining finance stage that makes the country relevant. “I think it is important for private companies and government to ensure the very best mining-focused teams are retained to keep the knowledge base here.”