Up & Coming Geoscientists - a sample of our AIG Honours Bursary Recipients

Latest Employment Survey
“
It’s profoundly troubling to see
so many highly qualified, experienced,
committed professionals unable to
apply their skills to contributing to
Australia’s economic security”
AIG President, Wayne Spilsbury, expressed
disappointment but no surprise in the latest
survey results. “It’s profoundly troubling to
see so many highly qualified, experienced,
committed professionals unable to apply their
skills to contributing to Australia’s economic
security” Mr Spilsbury said. “The situation
in mineral and energy resource exploration
is particularly troubling as the prolonged
downturn in the sector is damaging Australia’s
exploration project pipeline”. “The low levels
of geoscientist employment reflect low levels
of exploration activity, which means that
we are not making discoveries to maintain
Australia’s resource inventory which now has
potential to create gaps in critical mineral
supplies in coming years” Mr Spilsbury said.
“Discoveries do not turn into mines
overnight”. “We’re not exploring now and
the industry cannot be switched back on
overnight, so we’re facing a real prospect
of reduced development of new projects to
support Australia’s economy and standard of
living into the latter half of the next decade”.
“Its also very concerning that both the
Federal and State governments are failing to
act on important issues to enhance Australia’s
ability to attract investment in exploration;
most notably the time and expense of
securing access to land for exploration” Mr
Spilsbury said.
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AIG NEWS Issue 123 · February 2016