Professional Formation of Mineral Processing Engineers and Metallurgists

What does it take to be a good mineral processing professional? What do you need to know, and what do you have to be able to do? How can other people tell when you’re doing it well?

These are not easy questions to answer. We often talk about mineral processing or metallurgy in terms of areas of knowledge, like comminution or flotation, but a competent professional requires much more than a headful of theory. They also need to know how to deal with technical challenges, and where to find relevant information within their organisation and outside. They need to be able to collect the right data for a given situation and distinguish between good and bad data. They also need to be good at managing people and communicating up and down the line. Their impact on the overall value chain depends on the way their actions and behaviours leverage their knowledge.

Starting with the basics

Graduates do not arrive on the job fully formed professionally; they never have, and they never will. As social and technological change transforms the nature of work in the mining sector, it’s important that we continue to provide pathways for emerging professionals to develop the skills they need. There are two essential components to this. The first is a fundamental technical knowledge base, typically provided in University study, that might include basic physics and chemistry, some knowledge of rocks and minerals, and the ability to use numerical tools.

Universities are likely to continue to deliver this foundational knowledge, though several factors are negatively impacting the numbers of graduates with the specialist knowledge and skills needed for mineral processing and metallurgy. The AusIMM has recently established an Education Taskforce to address this and identify where support might be available, but despite this it can be assumed that on-the-job training is likely to be needed to fill foundational knowledge gaps in at least part of the graduate cohort.

The Professional Formation Journey

The second part of the professional formation journey is learning to apply knowledge in practice. This piece, which is arguably the most important, requires a substantial amount of hands-on experience, including dealing with the consequences of independent decisions and choices. It can be difficult and challenging, and mistakes are inevitably made, but this is an essential part of the process of becoming a fully-fledged professional.

The journey from novice through to expert is best achieved when support is available from more experienced professionals who can provide encouragement, suggestions and advice when necessary. This kind of support was almost always available in the workplace of the past but is increasingly difficult to provide in today’s workplaces as mineral processing operations transition to higher levels of automation and leaner workforces.

Many mining companies have addressed this issue by developing in-house development programs for their graduates using internal and external resources. Some larger companies are engaging in longer term post graduate on-going educational/training collaborations with Universities and other partners. This is expensive, however, and many such programs are unable to survive the inevitable impact of industry downturn.

Recognising this is an industry wide issue, and that many different companies are facing the same challenges, there is strong potential for a consortium approach that allows for sharing the development costs and resources.

An Industry Collaboration

A collaboration is currently underway between three mining companies, Freeport-McMoRan Inc, Newmont Goldcorp and Teck Resources Limited, to create a professional formation program in metallurgy/mineral processing for their engineering graduates. The mining companies are partnering with Edumine, a well-known provider of on-line mining education, and an international advisory group of experienced mineral processing educators (including the author of this article).

The program, which is currently under development, focuses on what is needed to develop mineral processing engineers and metallurgists capable of running the plants of today and tomorrow. The curriculum is flexible, and specifically designed for working professionals with different undergraduate experiences working in different industry sectors. Although it is not formally accredited, there will be digital tracking and badging to mark progress and allow transfer of credentials between organizations.

The proposed curriculum spans two years, with learners expected to spend 1-2 days per month actively engaged in online learning, real time workshops, or applied problem-solving exercises. An important feature is an on-the-job component, supported by experienced instructor/mentors, and designed to allow integration of authentic technical interventions in the program.

Education research tells us that we achieve the best learning outcomes from programs with:

• Content that is current, relevant and clear
• Learning supported by practical activities, and relevant to the learner’s day-job
• A problem-based approach (which develops higher-level skills)
• Group work (where social constructivism helps embed learning)
• Expert facilitation
• Flexible delivery

The Edumine platform will allow access to additional courses from the Edumine library, and the digital badging can be extended to include courses from external sources, providing even greater flexibility for individual learning needs.

Access will be restricted to the sponsor organisations during program development and initial deployment, but the ultimate objective is to develop a program that can be publicly accessed through the Edumine platform. Thus, the model spreads the development cost between multiple sponsors, who benefit from direct influence on program design and early access to the product, and ultimately becomes self-sustaining.

Benefits for all

Good professional formation is essential in a world class mineral industry and will encourage early career success and industry retention of graduate engineers. However, the current rate of social and technological change, and the changing nature of the workplace and the education sector make it essential for organisations to identify alternative pathways. The sponsoring companies deserve to be congratulated for taking the lead in this collaborative approach, which promises to deliver much-needed capability and skills while limiting the financial burden on any one organisation.