Critical needs could go unmet as talent pipeline runs dry

Just as Canada is attracting key investments to build up its critical minerals infrastructure, a shortage of critical expertise could hinder the country’s lofty ambitions.

A case in point is the burgeoning battery hub of Bécancour, Que., where new developments could end up competing for skilled labour.

In that southern Quebec city, just east of Trois-Rivières, GM and Posco are planning to build a $400-million battery materials production facility and Nouveau Monde Graphite (TSX-V: NOU; NYSE: NMG) is advancing a spherical graphite purification plant.

But from a human resources perspective, the skills that will be needed for those developments are hard to find across North America and if all three facilities go into production at the same time there could be “serious issues,” said Philippe Legault, Nouveau Monde’s vice president of HR.

“Just to staff those plants will be a challenge. That could jeopardize or put at risk our country’s capacity to embark on the EV revolution. We have the resources but we don’t have the expertise to embark on that,” he told The Northern Miner in a phone interview.

Nouveau Monde CEO Eric Desaulniers also flagged the issue at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference in Toronto in June, when he said Nouveau Monde has had to rely on workers from China.

“The only big player is China,” Legault said. “Transforming this graphite concentrate into…spherical graphite requires expertise that exists — and a process that exists — only in China. We’re currently developing our own process for the purification. That’s more on the chemicals [and] materials engineering side of the conversation side than the mining engineers.”

It could be a challenge, Legault believes, for the North American EV industry to fulfill its potential after U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law on Aug. 16 the Inflation Reduction Act, which offers $7,500 rebates for EV buyers and requires that vehicles be manufactured with a proportion of critical minerals and battery components sourced in North America.

“That’s good for the industry. However, we have a lack of chemical engineers, process engineers, materials engineers… specifically for the critical minerals niche like for graphite and lithium,” he said.

Looking at the industry as a whole and from the mining to the manufacturing stage, Legault believes more immigration of skilled individuals could help meet future needs. But if enough positions aren’t filled then projects could be delayed or even shelved.

To steer the mining industry in Canada towards a more prosperous destination, Legault thinks it has to promote itself more effectively, focus more on diversity and inclusion and help counter its negative image as “dirty and dangerous.”

It should also promote the potential for growth for miners.

“It’s an industry that pays well. You could make a good living out of it,” he said.

Eye on the critical supply chain prize

And the critical mineral industry potentially offers a bonanza of jobs and economic development.

The recent report “Canada’s New Economic Engine” written by Clean Energy Canada and the Trillium Network for Advanced Manufacturing estimates that in a base scenario where the Canadian government offers minimal assistance, the country’s EV battery supply chain could support 60,000 direct and indirect jobs and contribute $12 billion to national GDP.

In the ideal scenario, with government support, full manufacturing capacity used for EVs and the addition of new mines and investments the battery supply chain could support almost 250,000 direct and indirect jobs and add $59 billion to the economy by 2030.

However, the authors note that Canada’s battery supply chain “isn’t going to come together just because a few big pieces are in place” and they lay out six actions that must be taken if the country is to reach its potential.

Among those actions are building a workforce and overcoming such challenges as labour shortages, an ageing labour pool, and the distances separating where high-skilled workers live from where battery supply chain opportunities exist.

“Canada must develop new strategies to engage and mobilize big populations of skilled workers to realize Canada’s EV battery supply chain potential and keep pace with this booming industry,” the authors write. “This includes efforts to make Canada a top destination for global battery talent, new strategies to attract and retain workers within Canada, and support for workers being displaced from other sectors in the energy transition.”

Critical skills gap

When it comes to mining a critical mineral like nickel, that sector in Canada is meeting its skill needs and attracting young engineers, says Mark Selby, CEO of Canada Nickel (TSXV: CNC; OTC: CNIKF). He attributes that to Canada’s history and experience as a top nickel producer.

However, with Canada’s wider critical minerals industry, he said he believes more skilled workers are needed in the mineral processing realm.

“We’ll need a huge amount of processing capacity to be built in North America…[and] more downstream processing that we haven’t really done for 30-40 years but we need to develop [it] for the market in the coming decade,” he said. “We need a lot more metallurgists, a lot more mineral processors, more people who know how to maintain process plants.”

One educational solution to that shortage is what Selby calls a “time definite permitting process.”

Once a company knows a processing project will come online in three to five years, it could approach students who are entering post-secondary education and encourage them to pursue programs that will qualify them for the needed roles.

“[Otherwise], if it’s going to be… 10 years before these mines and processing plants show up then you’re just not going to get those students to take the risk with something as valuable as their education,” Selby explained.

Attracting young professionals

From the perspective of a new entrant to the industry, drawing more young professionals to the critical minerals field involves the same issues facing the perception of mining in general.

Tyler Sieben, a miner at the Newcrest gold-copper open pit mine near Dease Lake, British Columbia said that while many people are excited about the possibilities of EVs and zero-emission technologies, they don’t see their connection with mining.

“People are interested in those green tech careers,” said Sieben, who graduated from the University of Alberta’s mining engineering program in 2020. “[But they] don’t necessarily associate mining with a solution, they see it as a dirty, older industry. There’s work to be done to shift perceptions on where we get the lithium and cobalt from that we need to power our EVs.”

The industry, Sieben believes, needs to find new ways of making critical minerals industry jobs enticing.

“[We need] more awareness of our critical minerals strategy and what goes into it. People don’t know that our rare earths mostly come from China. It’s in the same sense that people don’t just go into software because they like to code, they also do it because they want to invent an app that can change the world.”