The CASE-IN championship helps to fill the shortage of personnel in the industry

"That's what's interesting. About 10 years ago, when we gathered at events like this, we talked about the shortage of qualified personnel and the struggle for them, and this was a problem. Now we are at a point where the struggle is for the human resource as such.

There are not enough people in the mining industry: not only experienced, knowledgeable, talented specialists, but there are not enough people at the entrance", Yulia Andronovskaya, Vice President for Personnel and Organizational Development of the Polyus gold mining company, outlined the urgent problem of the mining industry, speaking at a round table within the framework of Minex-2021.

The personnel issue, which is always painful and relevant for the mining industry, has sounded in a new way today. The Women in Mining Russia Association organized a round table on the topics of attracting young professionals and the potential of women's leadership at last year's Minex forum.

Perhaps this discussion turned out to be the most lively and emotional event of the forum: the speakers shared interesting cases, and the guests took an active part in the discussion.

I'd go to the surveyors.…

Today, mining companies are certainly interested in young specialists.: They work with universities and organize additional student training and internship programs.

"But the fact is, there are not enough students of specialized universities and faculties themselves, and the number of applicants in specialized specialties of the industry is getting smaller every year. And this means that we, the business, need to go further and start working not with universities, but with schools.

Look, everyone knows at the everyday level who lawyers are — although this is a very broad concept, but still. Everyone knows who economists are. But if you or your family do not work in the mining industry, it is not a fact that you know who a surveyor or a flotation device are. Personally, I didn't know until I joined the profession.

In other words, in order to attract young people to the extractive industry, in order to show them what kind of career can be built here, we must explain to them and their parents at a basic level what kind of profession it is and what prospects it provides.", — Julia Andronovskaya is sure.

Today, Polyus Company conducts career guidance events for both high school students and 7th graders. The company's experts believe that it is at this age that modern children begin to seriously think about which subjects to choose for in-depth study.

 "We are not worried at all about the fact that a young man will come to work not for us, but for any other company in our industry. Our task is to ensure the flow of young people into the industry. And I think that all major market players should get involved in solving this problem.", — Julia Andronovskaya thinks so.

The Opportunity Industry

Polyus has formulated one of the reasons for the shortage of personnel in the extractive industry and the lack of interest among young people in it: the latter simply do not know that it was possible. Svetlana Lapkina, NLMK's Director of Operational Procurement, spoke about the second reason.

"Not so long ago, we held a competition for the children of employees, in the final of which we gave the children the opportunity to speak to the top managers, including to tell them who they see themselves in the future, whether they are ready to come work for us.

And none of the children — we had 12-16—year-olds - declared their desire to work in the mining industry. This is despite the fact that their parents gave half their lives to this industry.

Why don't young people want to? Our guests talked about metallurgy being dirty, environmental problems, black skies and black snow. They also said that there is no place for creativity in these professions, there is no opportunity to develop and express oneself.

A lot has been said about environmental and digital projects as areas in which young people want to move. And in their eyes, mining and metallurgy are something else entirely.", — Svetlana Lapkina told us.

If we look at the problem from this point of view, the issue of personnel starvation is very closely related to the question of whether the ESG agenda is relevant for the industry.

Projects that fit at least one of the letters of the abbreviation are not only an opportunity to save the company from fines and inspections, but also the image of the company. NLMK's experience shows exactly how the world sees mining and processing companies.

Today, the industry is faced with the task of changing the prevailing opinion. After all, the mining industry has changed a lot in recent years, and working in metallurgy is not always a job on the production floor.

And in order to show what NLMK really is, the company has launched a large program, the Academy of Steel Capabilities. It is aimed at students and is designed for 14 months. NLMK provides an opportunity for future young professionals to immerse themselves in production processes, understand how they are organized, and complete internships.

"Our interns have the opportunity to write theses in parallel, studying the topic that they are interested in. I can speak for the students of my directorate: everyone who interned with us stayed in the company, moved on to certain positions and are now successfully working. So we are investing in young people and due to this we are cultivating good specialists from students.", — Svetlana Lapkina told us.

Where he was born, he came in handy there.

The shortage of personnel in the industry is also due to the fact that large mining enterprises are often located in very small towns.

This is logical and natural: when mining begins, a work settlement appears next to it, which then turns into a city or town, and it gathers exactly as many residents as it needs to operate a new facility and ensure their comfortable life.

And the problem is getting worse. We have already said more than once that well-known large mineral deposits are being depleted, and the time is coming for the development of new ones located far from civilization.

Kinross Gold, whose facilities are located in the Chukotka Autonomous District, Khabarovsk Territory and Magadan Region, is facing this problem.

"It is not the first year that we have been faced with a shortage of personnel, with the problem of the outflow of young people from our industry. Five years ago, our colleagues came to Magadan schools and talked with children. When asked who the guys wanted to become, the answers were: an economist, a lawyer, less often a doctor, very rarely an engineer — such answers could be given by children of representatives of technical specialties.

We asked the students if they wanted to work and study in the Magadan region, and we heard an unequivocal refusal. But there is a magnificent polytechnic here, where representatives of mining professions are wonderfully trained.

And then we thought about what we, as a company, can do to change the situation.", — Olga Gorbatyuk, Executive Director of Udinsk Gold LLC, Kinross Gold, shared.

KinrossGold followed the same path as Polyus and began conducting career guidance talks with schoolchildren. The company's employees talked about their specialties, their own experience, and achievements.

As Olga Gorbatyuk says, the company employs enthusiastic specialists, such stories always turn out to be fascinating. After such classes, children become interested in the profession, although it is, of course, unrealistic to track exactly how many people actually enter the industry after that.

Kinross Gold also works with universities and students. The International CASE-IN Engineering Championship is being held in the Magadan region, and specialists from a gold mining company are part of the jury. Students undergo internships at Kinross Gold facilities, and working specialists become their mentors.

The company also actively works with indigenous peoples in the regions where it operates. Olga Gorbatyuk said that among the employees of Kinross Old there are those who joined the company as an 18-year-old student and took their first steps together with the gold miner. Today, the youth of that time have grown up to leadership positions.

And at the moment, about a third of the company's employees in Chukotka are representatives of small indigenous peoples.

The Polyus company, whose flagship facilities are located in Siberia, also strives to attract the local population to work. And the company is currently implementing the career guidance measures we described above in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, in the north of which the Olympiada gold deposit is located. So far, this is a pilot, if it turns out to be successful, Polyus will launch similar projects in the Irkutsk and Magadan regions.

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