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

Mining professionals in today’s market
Geologists in the age of
commodity turmoil
Erik Ronald
(Modified after originally published on LinkedIn on 19 Jan 16)
Being a mining geologist, whether with
a junior explorer, major producer, midtier
or a private consultant, tends to
be a challenge even when the global economy
is firing on all cylinders. Unfortunately, the
bad news keeps rolling in these days with the
you stop and think about it, geologists should
be one of the key roles kept in tight times as
they have the unique skill set to truly add value
to the company or operation. It’s the Mining
Geologist’s role to help a business when
prices plunge by optimising mining areas and
professional geologists at the executive level
in mid- to major mining companies resulting
in a de-emphasis of orebody knowledge
in decision making and lack of mentoring
opportunities for company geoscientists.
On the first point, when browsing university
recent article on Mining.com stating the U.S.
is experiencing its worst year for mining since
1986 (http://www.mining.com/2015-oneof-the-worst-year-ever-for-us-mining-jobs/)
and the AusIMM publishing their annual
employment survey stating 20% of exploration
geologists in Australia are currently
unemployed (http://www.ausimm.com.au/
Content/docs/policy/pep2015/emploment_
survey_2015_full_report_20151007.pdf). So
the facts are: jobs are scarce, commodities
are in over-supply and investment is nonexistent.
It’s certainly not a pretty picture for
mining in 2016.
Not to be too pessimistic, but geologists,
especially exploration geologists, tend to be
the first staff let go when times get tough. If
grade to maximise NPV. It’s the Exploration
Geologist’s role to ensure successful
discovery and generate a robust project
pipeline for future business development.
It’s the Resource Geologist’s role to ensure
grades, tonnages, and Mineral Resources are
sound to allow for optimisation of the mine
plan. So with that said, why are geologists the
first to get the boot?
There are likely some conspiracy theories
out there (personally, I like The Brotherhood
of Evil Mine Engineers theory) but the reality
appears to come down to a few items: 1)
Geologists are not trained to think in business
terms, 2) they rarely have a true appreciation
of how they contribute to the mining
value-chain, and 3) there are not enough
curriculum for a Bachelor’s or even Master’s
in Geology, you’ll be hard-pressed to find an
economics or management course. This is
in stark contrast to most Mining Engineering
programs let alone Business schools. Some
may argue that Geology is a science therefore
the courses need to be focused on the maths,
chemistry, physics and upper-level geology
courses, which is certainly true. Unfortunately
as a result of the pure science requirements,
there are a lot of very bright young geologists
in industry who honestly don’t have a clue
about business drivers, capital management,
macro- and micro-economics nor a clear
understanding of how a geologist directly
impacts a company’s bottom line.
To my second point, I find it the unfortunate
exception when a mine geologist understands
exactly how the geology of an ore deposit
impacts saleable product and how it affects
customers’ processes or end-products. This
is true for coal, industrial minerals, iron ore
and even in the base and precious metals
world. Understanding and communicating
the downstream impacts geology has on the
value-chain can make or break a business
when commodity prices fall and margins
tighten. A base metals example would be
the geologic understanding of a porphyry
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AIG NEWS Issue 123 · February 2016