Mining and guitars: fining relevance for students

According to Mark Twain, “Everyone complains about the weather, but no one does anything about it.” Mining people have long complained that students in Canadian schools know little about our industry and that, as a result, few are motivated to join it as skilled workers or professionals. Now someone is trying to do something about that knowledge gap. At the joint annual meeting of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum’s District 1 and the Newfoundland Branch, held in St. John’s, Nov. 1-3, organizers invited students from local secondary schools to visit the convention to view the displays, consisting of a core shack and trade show.

An interesting selection of drill cores from current exploration projects aside, there were graphic presentations of the scientific and technical aspects of government programs and a large variety of commercial stands showing the latest in equipment and services for the mining industry.

This down-east initiative mirrored a recent innovation promoted by the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, CIM’s antipodean counterpart. Earlier this year, the AusIMM invited top science students to participate in a 1-day mini-conference held in conjunction with the institute’s annual meeting. Prominent mineral scientists and engineers attending the convention were invited to deliver lectures to the students. Questions and discussion were encouraged.

There is little doubt in my mind that the mental stimulation provided by the interaction of first-rate practitioners with students could well influence some to take up careers in mining. Moreover, such a program is infinitely preferable to the half-hearted encouragement of our schools’ guidance counsellors, many of them lack scientific training and business experience.

I hope that the CIM will consider such a mini-conference for students as an add-on to its well established annual general meetings. In the meantime, the Newfoundland experiment is a good beginning. It can only help to raise that profile of our industry and project a high-tech image, in place of the negative and obsolete stereotype that seems to prevail.

I had an opportunity to observe and chat with some of the students who came to view the exhibition. It appears that traditional roles still govern today’s youth to a greater extent than we might suppose. The hotel lobby contained several groups of girls who, perhaps bored with technical displays, had opted for a cigarette and some animated chatter about subjects of more immediate interest. By contrast, most of the boys were in the exhibition room where they plied exhibitors with questions.

I approached one group of boys who seemed excited about something they had seen. “Did you find the displays interesting?” I asked.

“Yes,” said one, “look at this.” And he showed me a brochure for a microcomputer-based seismic monitoring recorder.

“Those are used for rock burst research in underground mines,” I said, in my best professorial manner.

“Man,” he exclaimed, “this thing is a frequency analyzer. I could use it to tune my guitar.”

By finding or creating relevance to his own interests, that boy will carry away a vital and lasting positive image of our industry. If industry people and institutions reach out more to youth, it will pay big dividends.005 0000,0606 George Miller is the president of the Mining Association of Canada.