Finding talent in the age of EVs

How do we start to build a critical minerals talent pipeline?

The rise of electric vehicles has the potential to cause some significant shifts in the amount and mix of talent required for a high performing integrated supply chain in Canada. While much of the attention around the labour force impacts of EVs have tended to focus on the automotive sector, less time has been spent considering where the mining sector is going to get its people.

It has been well-documented generally that as mine workers begin to retire, the sector is looking at a shortage of new workers to fill the vacancies. Moreover, young people seem less interested in considering a career in mining, as its reputation as being dirty and laborious work still permeates. This lackluster interest is reflected in a 2023 report by PwC that showed that 70% of young Canadians would definitely or probably not consider a career in mining. These trends are further exacerbated by the impending increase in mining intensity in Canada if the critical minerals market delivers on what it predicted to support global decarbonization. In short, the mining sector needs to find talent, so where are firms finding it now, and how will they find more of it?

While there are skills gaps in various disciplines within the mining process, I have decided to focus on two key areas that are of interest to the Centre for Smart Mining currently: electric mining equipment and mineral processing.

First, a look at mining equipment manufacturers reveals some interesting talent acquisition activities brought on by the advent of equipment electrification in Canadian underground mines. Mining equipment OEMs have needed to find highly skilled people to effectively shift to electric vehicle development. There are relatively few electric vehicle experts with decades of experience hanging around to draw from. And, if there are, you would expect to find them in the automotive sector as it is difficult for companies to entice them into the mining equipment sector. So, where are companies sourcing their engineering talent to develop the all-electric mine vehicles of the future? While there is not a single source to point to, some interesting trends have emerged from a cursory look at the sector. First, mining equipment OEMs do not seem to be siphoning off talent from the automotive sector en masse. Rather, most design teams are made up of a combination of either mechanical or electrical engineering disciplines with some having backgrounds in the field of mechatronics engineering. Surprisingly, many team members have work histories that include previous experience designing diesel mining equipment. This suggests that some of the shift to developing electric mining equipment has been undertaken through self-education and investigation among project teams rather than sourcing talent with built-in EV engineering bona fides.

Beyond “home-grown” talent, some OEMs also bolstered their engineering bench strength to go after the EV market through strategic acquisitions and partnerships. For example, Sandvik accelerated its EV portfolio through its acquisition of Artisan Vehicles in 2019, and Epiroc achieved a similar result through its acquisition of FVT Research in 2021.

While some firms have taken it upon themselves to develop talent internally by retraining and augmenting the capacity of existing engineering staff to design and develop EVs, the good news is there is a nascent talent pipeline developing in Canada. Namely, engineering programs that focus on electric drive train development at Ontario Tech University, MacMaster University, and the University of Windsor have started producing high-quality graduates, and I have even seen some of them starting to trickle into the mining OEM space.

In addition to the mining vehicle sector, it is predicted that there will be a significant demand for highly skilled workers with backgrounds in mineral and material processing as Canada seeks to become a big player in battery metals. Unfortunately, there has recently been waning interest among high school graduates in mineral processing and metallurgy programs which has resulted in an undersupply of talent in these fields. This has induced the mining industry to look at adjacent disciplines such as chemical engineering or even environmental engineering to satisfy their needs. While graduates from other disciplines are still competent, significant investment must be made on the part of the mining company to upskill these individuals into fully productive workers. Some mining companies are getting ahead of this issue by offering co-operative learning opportunities (co-op placements) to a wider variety of engineering disciplines prior to graduation, so prospective engineers become more familiar with the mining process earlier on and thereby more productive once hired.

A quick look at the two subject areas above shows that, while companies are getting creative with how they find talent, it is incumbent upon the rest of the mining ecosystem, namely post-secondary education institutions, to help fill gaps as well. Changes to curriculum and to how programs are branded and marketed to prospective students will be critical to attracting the required numbers of people entering these programs to equal the commensurate number of graduates needed for a healthy talent pipeline. For example, the mining engineering programs at colleges and universities do not represent the diversity of disciplines and corresponding jobs that exist for graduates of these programs. Mining engineering graduates can work in mineral processing, exploration, excavation, geology and metallurgy, geotechnical engineering, and surveying, to name a few. So, to appeal to prospective students with a wider range of career interests, it is important to unpack these programs to showcase the full breath of careers their training can lead to. Moreover, from a quick overview of the chemical engineering technician program at Cambrian College where I work, it is not obvious that the program can lead students into the mineral processing field. Even though a larger percentage of graduates from this program end up doing just that. To that end, post-secondary institutions need to do a better job of promoting mining-related programs to prospective students as early as possible in their academic career. Marketing programs to high school and even elementary school students will be critical. Also, schools should be targeting non-obvious locales to promote careers in mining like urban centres and areas not directly adjacent to mining communities to entice the uninitiated into mining education. I am happy to report that some of this important work is already underway in Canada. The Ontario Mining Association (OMA) launched its “This is Mine Life” campaign in late 2023 with a focus on getting the message out to youth that mining is a rewarding and high-tech industry to consider for their future careers. In addition, the campaign focuses on demonstrating to young people that a career in Canadian mining offers an attractive lifestyle for those curious enough to give it a try. A big part of reversing the stigma of working in mining will be programs like this and the collective efforts of mining-focused post-secondary institutions. While the workforce shortfall is a big problem to solve, it will take a whole host of solutions, including the attraction of qualified newcomers to the sector, that will help start to fill the talent gap. 

Steve Gravel is the manager of the Centre for Smart Mining at Cambrian College.

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