For the past 16 years, Curtin’s Master of Science in Mineral Economics has been run from the venerable Western Australian School of Mines. This year the program moved to the Curtin Graduate School of Business.

Department of Mineral & Energy Economics head associate professor Daniel Packey said besides the program offered by the Colorado School of Mines, the Curtin offering was the world’s only other program focused on mineral economics.

The Curtin course has about 150 students and there are plans to grow it.

Given its uniqueness, the course is drawing students from around the world.

This year it costs domestic students $A2375 per unit and international students $2525 a unit. There are 12 units in the degree.

There also is an energy stream to the Master’s degree that has been running since the mid-1990s.

Packey said the Curtin offering was much more applied than the Colorado offering.

“We’re very proud of the fact it is so applied. It can be applied to real-world problems that they [the students] may have,” he said.

The course’s focus is on analytical tools, such as assessing markets and identifying different levels of risk that could impact on a project.

“We teach a class on forecasting,” Packey said. “How do you look at what the market is going to be in the future?”

Exchange-rate risk is another area many people do not consider but it is very much in the realm of the minerals economist. For example, contracts set up on a US-Australian dollar exchange rate of about US60c start looking a little sickly when the Australian dollar is buying about US90c.

“We also look at contract law and native title,” Packey said.

Some of the classes can be done quite quickly.

Packey said this was to fit in with the work schedules of some of the students, particularly those working in the resources sector.

“Students can complete a class in eight days,” he said.

It is an extremely intense eight days, however.

To complete the 12 units usually takes students about a year-and-a-half to two years.

Those students fall into three categories.

The first, Packey said, was those with a genuine thirst for knowledge.

The other two are the ceiling breakers and the door openers.

Those going through the program, whichever category they may fall into, are split into two types – technical and non-technical.

The technical types are those who are tired of being in the mine and would like to be in an air-conditioned office instead of in the field. According to Packey, these are the door openers.

The non-technical ones are the financial types who need a good understanding of the resources sector to differentiate themselves from their colleagues and make the next step up the ladder. These are known as the ceiling breakers.

For these types, the course incorporates a healthy dose of mining knowledge. They have to go to Kalgoorlie to do two of their units there.

“We take these finance guys and put their butts in a mine,” Packey said. “It shows them if you are financing mineral processing then this is what that means. If you are financing mineral exploration this is what that means.

“It gives them a comfort level. It means they can understand what the geologists are talking about.”

While the finance types may struggle with geo-jargon, as Packey points out, the geologists can be just as much at sea with the jargon of the policymakers and financiers.

For the technical types, the course focuses much more on boosting their financial skills.

“We knock the dirt off their boots and give them the tools to do things like feasibility studies,” Packey said. “We show them how to do a business plan the way a bank wants it done.”

For all participants it is a two-part process.

“On the one hand we’re sharpening the skills they already have,” Packey said. “On the other we’re giving them new skills.”

He believes the need is growing again for courses such as those Curtin is offering.

“We’re going to need 27,000 career professionals in the minerals sector in the next three years, according to government estimates.”

Interestingly, demand for the course runs counter-cyclically. When times are tough there is a lot of interest because the industry professionals have the time and want the education to increase their opportunities. When the boom bites they would still like to have the better skills but do not have the time to take on the course.

There also are plans to turn the energy economics program into a stream within the minerals economics course.

At the moment students can opt to do a Master of Science with a major in minerals or energy economics.

“We have a number of courses that apply directly to the energy field,” Packey said.