“Only a miracle can keep the next generation of mining engineers in long-term jobs”

Snippets from an article about the South African mining industry:

BAR a couple of notable exceptions – such as the Rainbow Rare Earths project at Phalaborwa and the Renergen helium and gas project in the Free State province – South Africa’s junior mining and exploration industry is in dire straits.

According to Miller, the current crop of South African mining graduates will be unemployed by 2040 because the country will have very few operating mines remaining by then unless exploration “takes off radically and dramatically” this year and next.

Miller told delegates that the South African exploration industry “has never been at a lower ebb. It takes on average 15 to 20 years to take a new Tier 1 mineral deposit from discovery to production.

“There is a slow, inevitable march for the SA industry, where exploration spending has dried up, mines are gradually closing, new mine discoveries have not been made, and the pipeline is empty.

“So, will there be any mines operating in 18 years? Let’s count them. You will run out of mines before you run out of fingers to count them on.”