https://www.miningweekly.com

FETs not churning out suitable artisans for a mining sector that needs to mechanise at a faster pace

4th October 2013

By: Sashnee Moodley

Senior Deputy Editor Polity and Multimedia

  

Font size: - +

The South African mining sector needs to mechanise at a faster pace to remain competitive and the skills needed to achieve this are sourced from the artisan pool, but the skills shortage in this area is increasing because further education and training (FET) colleges are not providing graduates with the skills needed in the mining sector.

This is according to University of Witwatersrand (Wits) School of Mining Engineering school head Professor Fred Cawood, who states that more focus should be placed on FET colleges, as the skills needed in the mining sector are hardly being provided by training centres located at mines.

However, he notes that these training centres have scaled down because of cost constraints, resulting in an increasing skills gap.

This is where FET colleges should close the gap and supply the market with the necessary skills, says Cawood, adding that one FET mining school should be established in each mining region to overcome the skills problem at that level.

Professional services firm Grant Thornton corporate finance director and head of mining advisory services Steven Kilfoil agrees, adding that artisanal and engineering skills are lacking in the mining sector and FET colleges need to provide these skills.

“Government also needs to step in, through FETs, to assist with the supply of artisan-type skills that are required for mechanisation. It will not only assist in securing the future of the mining industry but will also support the entire economy because of the transportability of such skills to other sectors of the economy,” says Cawood

He adds that government has realised through the Department of Higher Education and Training that it has underinvested in the FET area. The challenge is to implement policy solutions in a manner that will address this issue. A good starting point is to assess the typical skills requirements for a modern economy and then to build such capacity within the FET system.

However, Kilfoil states that, while South Africa is not producing enough graduates for the mining industry, a tough approach needs to also be taken at the basic education level, as the country is not producing enough matriculants with higher-grade mathematics and science.

“The country’s engineers and scientists stem from this pool and if the country does not produce enough passes in these subjects, the skills pool in South Africa will soon run dry. More emphasis must be placed on mathematics and science, which will create a base for industries, including mining, to generate more graduates and gain skills,” he states.

Cawood believes that the mining industry needs to start operating differently and says one of the obvious changes is more mechanisation.

To ensure the mining sector implements this successfully, a different set of skills is needed, as the current mining workforce is not educated to the point where they can offer their skills in a mechanised market.

He notes that, the current mining methods used at most gold and platinum mines do not require the high numbers of differently skilled workers that, for example, mechanised operations need. However, other mining countries have already made this skills shift to mechanisation, making them more globally competitive.

“If South Africa wants to reach the same level of global competitiveness, we also have to go down the mechanisation route. Our competitors are mining more cheaply as a result of mechanisation. We have to make the switch, but we don’t have enough skills to support this change.

“Also, we cannot continue to mine deeper and deeper because the mining force demands higher pay for working in deeper and more dangerous conditions,” Cawood notes, adding that higher salaries are not a solution, as they increase costs and profitability is compromised.

Gold Fields corporate affairs VP Sven Lunsche says the vast majority of future gold and platinum ore reserves are located at depth and most mines rely heavily on labour-intensive methods to extract them. This raises a range of issues – most importantly, safety – because the deeper the mine, the more dangerous it becomes. Cost is another issue, as mining deeper is more costly in terms of energy use, ventilation and water requirements.

Lunsche acknowledges that there is a major disconnect between the future skills needs of the industry and the current low-skilled and semiskilled nature of the vast majority of mining operations in the country.

He believes that, to boost mining production in the South African gold and platinum sectors, the mining sector will have to rely on technology to advance beyond the deep levels at which most mines currently operate.

The conventional methods, such as hand-held drilling and the collection of ore for further processing, are gradually being phased out and this results in heavy job losses at these mines.

“Instead, the industry needs different types of skills – a high level of technological skills to advance mechanised mining at depths and skills to deal with some of the environmental and energy issues arising from mining – this includes water and soil treatment, acid mine drainage, new tailings technologies and more efficient energy use for underground ventilation,” states Lunsche.

Kilfoil says there has been a growing trend in the local mining sector over the last 15 years of insufficient money or resources being invested in skilling the population.

While he does not believe this is due to a lack of effort, the issue is that there is no cohesive strategy on how to achieve and maintain skills development.

A cohesive strategy on training is needed through more investment at secondary school level, says Kilfoil, adding that learners can be trained at this level in technical areas.

He notes that these ideas are starting to filter through, but the implementation and cohesive strategy of upskilling are important, as the mining sector needs trained workers to help eliminate the uncertainty in the market.

“Over the last two years, the mining sector has been extremely volatile. Mining is a long-term venture and it is difficult to plan a 20-year or a 30-year project in a volatile environment. You need certainty over labour issues, government policy, land tenure and mineral rights. Therefore, we need to establish certainty in the mining sector,” Kilfoil says.

He says mining companies can provide more on-site training and invest in training academies to address the skills problem in the local mining industry, which is making South African mining less competitive.

“There has to be a level of flexibility in the labour market to allow for the changes in the level of employment when commodity prices boom and reduce the levels of employment when the market is slow.

“If the industry doesn’t have the ability to do this, it becomes less competitive and investors turn to places where they can get that flexibility,” Kilfoil points out, adding that there also has to be more support from government to make the South African mining sector more competitive.

Meanwhile, Gold Fields opened a mechanised training centre at its South Deep mine, in Gauteng, earlier this year to help employees improve their operating skills through practical work.

The new centre can accommodate 60 people a day; it also has four lecture rooms and equipment to ensure employees are trained to operate at the highest levels possible.

The aim of the centre is to introduce mine employees to the trackless mining environment, conduct pre-employment assessments on all employees, provide initial training and refresher training for new and current employees and provide corrective or performance improvement training.

The centre also provides social training for community members, with the proviso that they be employed should the need arise, as well as mining and engineering learnerships and supervisory training.

It also has a facility where rebuilt machines are tested before they are used underground.

“With the new facility, the students can move from the lecture room, where theory is facilitated, to an outside practical mock-up area, which will facilitate practical skills training.”

“South Deep is also upgrading and improving its simulator fleet to assist further in improving the quality of training,” says South Deep superintendant and head of the centre Eddie Stonehouse.

Addressing Unemployment
Lunsche says it must be acknowledged that, owing to the deep-level nature of future gold and platinum mining, the number of traditional jobs in the industry will gradually decline.

However, he adds that skills development can assist in enabling existing miners to find other and better-paying jobs as the industry moves into a more mechanised phase.

“Also, the technological advances of the industry – and the concomitant upskilling of the workforce – will enable it to move into new areas that will create jobs,” Lunsche says.

Kilfoil believes that the industry needs to focus on the less popular industrial minerals, such as dolomites and carbonates, as this can generate jobs, despite the minerals not being as popular as gold and platinum.

“With low capital input, we can also bene-ficiate the minerals. A few government para- statals are researching ways to do this and there are strategies on how to do this,” he notes.

Meanwhile, Cawood suggests that different or perhaps new skills for a mechanised environment need to be developed to complement traditional artisans like plumbers, electricians and welders.

These are also long-term solutions to the problem of unemployment, as such jobs are more transportable between different industries, compared with rock drill operators in mines, for example.

Academic Investment
Cawood notes that interaction between universities and mining companies is important to ensure that graduates are well placed in the mining industry and that mining companies invest in this strategy.

As part of this interaction, Gold Fields has supported the Wits and University of Johannesburg (UJ) mining schools with a combined sponsorship of R26-million over the past three years. Lunsche states that the company has already seen a significant increase in the level of skills as a result of these sponsorships.

“Because South Deep is one of the few mechanised mines in South Africa, we require greater access to highly skilled recruits and, through our Wits and UJ sponsorship, we have a good pool of skills from which to recruit,” he says.

Last year, Gold Fields also awarded 131 university bursaries to students in South Africa pursuing mining-related degrees and qualifications and spent R408-million throughout the company on in-house skills development, of which R366-million was spent in South Africa.

This included expenditure at the Kloof, Driefontein and Beatrix mines, which were unbundled earlier this year into a separate company, Sibanye Gold.

Speaking at the Mining Lekgotla, in Johannesburg, in August, Chamber of Mines president and Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani said that the contribution of mining to community, enterprise and skills development in South Africa has been substantial.

“Our record in skills development in 2012 included R330-million granted for scholarships and bursaries that year. Of the R330-million, about 5 168 bursaries were awarded to nonemployees.

“The top ten mining companies spent about R4.9-billion on learnership programmes and a further R1.7-billion in adult basic education and training. A further R7.4-billion was invested in artisan training and other people-development initiatives,” Cutifani said.

Meanwhile, the Wits School of Mining says it is on track to increase the number of graduates entering the mining industry from its current 70 to 100 by the end of next year. The university has increased its student intake and Cawood believes that the university is fast approaching the level where it will meet the market’s demand for its graduates.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION