https://www.engineeringnews.co.za

Jobless mining engineering graduates plead for look in

Society of Mining Engineering Students’ Smangaliso Musawenkosi spoke to Mining Weekly Online’s Martin Creamer about the large number of mining engineering graduates who are unable to find employment in mining. Video: Nicholas Boyd. Video Editing: Lionel da Silva

8th June 2015

By: Martin Creamer

Creamer Media Editor

  

Font size: - +

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Jobless mining engineering graduates are pleading for inclusion in South Africa’s mining industry in preparation for the sector’s inevitable upturn in the future.

Speaking to Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly Online in a video interview on the sidelines of the Junior Indaba in Johannesburg, Society of Mining Engineering Students independent presidential adviser Smangaliso Musawenkosi outlined the current difficulty mining engineering graduates have in finding employment in mining.

“I’m talking about students with honours in mining engineering,” said Musawenkosi, whose comments follow those of Professor Emeritus Huw Phillips that, after decades of undersupply, mining engineering graduates are now struggling to find mining jobs.

Phillips is encouraging the industry to have the foresight to develop the raw talent at its disposal to ensure that South Africa is well positioned to take advantage of the next upturn.

The main three universities that offer mining engineering degrees are the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of Pretoria and the University of Johannesburg.

Musawenkosi is hopeful that through constructive engagement with the mining industry, work will be found for jobless graduates.

The Society of Mining Engineering Students is also taking steps to help the many students unable to complete their degrees because the mining industry is denying them the opportunity to do the necessary vacation work.

Quick to latch on to the jobless mining graduate disappointment has been veteran research commentator Dr RE (Robbie) Robinson, who has called for a research revolution to keep the surfeit of jobless graduates in the industry.

The one-time National Institute for Metallurgy, now Mintek, director has for long advocated the creation of mining clusters to get the best out of the mining industry and also facilitate the social coherence and common loyalties the sector so desperately needs.

Robinson’s vision, which he has detailed in innumerable  articles for the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy journal, involves the holistic use of mine land to provide a revenue stream for the mining proposed clusters.

Musawenkosi was sure that jobless mining engineering graduates would welcome becoming part of any research effort and emphasised that mining was not just about extracting mineral and metal deposits but embraced a wide spectrum of support activities.

Robinson sees research as having a spider’s web of possibilities and has been trying to convince the mining industry to have a portfolio of research and to get away from the selection of one favourite project.

His philosophy is to have a portfolio of research projects where there are several alternatives to solving a problem in the belief that the chances of finding the final answer are far better with three or more alternatives than with one chosen path.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

Comments

Showroom

Booyco Electronics
Booyco Electronics

Booyco Electronics, South African pioneer of Proximity Detection Systems, offers safety solutions for underground and surface mining, quarrying,...

VISIT SHOWROOM 
Rentech
Rentech

Rentech provides renewable energy products and services to the local and selected African markets. Supplying inverters, lithium and lead-acid...

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.087 0.146s - 156pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now