News

Article by Rebecca Le May courtesy of the West Australian.

The mining industry is learning how to sell itself better to women and young people as an attractive career option, while remote operations technology is opening doors to a whole new cohort of workers, sector giants have told Seven West Media’s Resources Technology Showcase conference.

Hancock Prospecting chief executive of group operations Gerhard Veldsman said he believed remote operations work was the future of the sector, enabling parents to be part of it and still see their children at night.

“It’s actually an exciting time and I actually think the boom is still to come,” Mr Veldsman said.

“Twenty years from now, I can see a lot more people working in control centres or even commuting from towns like Margaret River and Collie to little hubs that support the resources sector.” He suggested such technology would enable people to stay in the workplace longer, but potentially working fewer hours.

“I do think we can go a little bit further as industry and Government together with an ageing workforce,” Mr Veldsman said.

Premier Mark McGowan said a bigger investment in technology at schools and TAFEs was positioning students better for a more high-tech future.

“The infrastructure these days that we’re investing in is much more suited to the task,” he said.

“You look at this equipment that could have come straight out of a factory in Germany or Japan that is state-of-the-art on a worksite.

“That’s the way we are training and educating young people.” Rio Tinto iron ore boss Simon Trott said the industry had to tell its story a lot better in terms of jobs available and the opportunities.

BHP Nickel West asset president Jessica Farrell agreed.

“I’ve had a fantastic opportunity in the industry to . . . diversify across a range of different roles,” she reflected.

“But I think we haven’t been fantastic as an industry in really showcasing that we’re getting better on the visual mediums that people subscribe to (with) diversity.”