“I put the challenge to you to allow students into your mines. More of our students need exposure … mining engineering comes to life for them when they see it in the flesh,” Hebblewhite said at the recent Longwall 2006 conference in the Hunter Valley.

He added that a quick fix approach could not be taken: “You can’t just turn these systems on and off at will – we need to talk about long-term planning.”

Mining Education Australia (MEA), an initiative between educators and industry, supported by the Curtin University of Technology, the University of New South Wales, the University of Queensland and the Minerals Council of Australia, was born on July 1 this year. The MEA commences teaching operations in February next year.

The MEA will deliver a nationally integrated third and fourth year mining engineering program at partner universities.

Hebblewhite said the MEA gave students the opportunity to be taught by the best academics in the country. Under the program staff will be moved through the three universities and students will also learn via the internet and video conferencing. They will also have the opportunity to work with and share ideas with students from other states.

Hebblewhite said it also had the added bonus of exposing and perhaps attracting students from Western Australia’s Curtin University of Technology (WA School of Mines) who traditionally have not been exposed to the coal industry.

Under the program the universities and industry partners will conduct targeted recruitment programs including open days, scholarships, information dissemination and summer schools.

Hebblewhite said already this year he had received 50 applications for an Xstrata-funded summer school for Year 10 and 11 students.

A recent study funded by the Minerals Council of Australia has estimated that the Australian minerals industry will need an extra 70,000 workers over the next decade to meet the labour demand, of whom nearly 8000 would be professional employees, including a large proportion of mining engineers. These numbers are over and above normal replacement figures.

Hebblewhite said while mining engineering graduate numbers were at the turnaround stage now, the effort needed to be sustained.

In a survey of fourth year mining engineering students graduating in 2006 from the UNSW, the average starting salary package was $A99,000.

The typical distribution of UNSW mining graduates was 5% to other industries and interests; 10-15% to corporate financial/management/consulting; less than 5% to research; 40% to the hard rock sector; and 40% to the coal sector, although these proportions vary considerably, from year to year.

Approximately 32% of new students in 2006 originated from non-Sydney areas of NSW, including 7% from Newcastle or Wollongong, and 25% from rural areas. A further 61% were from Sydney and 7% from interstate or overseas. Hebblewhite said the Hunter Valley was historically one of the most difficult areas for recruiting students into mining engineering.