A ROADMAP FOR MINERALS PROCESSING EDUCATION
Analysis of Labuor Sustainability for Mining
Engineers in Chile
*JUAN PABLO HURTADO1, JUAN PABLO VARGAS NORAMBUENA1,
ANDRÉS SÁNCHEZ1, PAMELA JARA1 AND SEBASTIÁN PÉREZ1
1
Mining Engineering Department Universidad de Santiago de Chile
Santiago, Chile
Abstract
In Chile there have been universities that have trained thousands of
mining engineers over the country’s history for decades. Since 2010
multiple academic projects were generated around the career of Mining
Engineering, based on the large investments and high demand for
qualified jobs that were projected by government agencies for the 2010 –
2025 period. Based on this, public and private universities and professional
institutes started careers linked to mining, encouraged by the media,
which wrote in their main pages about the large amounts of money
that mining professionals were earning, higher than those of any other
professionals in the country. Since then, academic offerings have increased
in an overwhelming and uncontrolled manner. However, the projections on
labor demand in relation to the professional mining engineering careers
did not go as predicted. This paper reviews the traditional training that the
profession has given, showing the current academic offerings in 2015, the
projections for graduates up to 2023, and the job offers according to the
forecasts of national and international economies. Then the supply and
demand are projected jointly to show the gap that there will be between
both. All this puts in evidence a discouraging panorama for the graduates
from the different universities and professional institutes due to the huge
oversupply that is foreseen.
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Key Words
Mining engineering, employability, education, Chile.
Introduction
Talking about mining engineers in Chile may refer to various careers such
as Civil Engineering in Mines (6 years), Mining Engineering (5 years), and
Mining Technician (Ingeniero de Ejecución) (4 years) but graduates will
eventually get similar jobs and/or perform the same tasks. Therefore, in
order to simplify the development of the paper we will talk about “mining
engineering” without making further distinctions.
The objective of the present paper is to carry out an academic exercise to
show the horizon that is faced by mining engineering graduates in Chile
in terms of employment, based on recent events and on the projections
made under the explicit assumptions discussed in the text.
Traditional Training and the New Academic Offer
Until the first years of this century, the number of mining engineers
graduating fromuniversities seemed to be sufficient to satisfy the country’s
demand. This demand had been satisfied over the last 40 years by five state
universities, namely the Universidad de Chile, Universidad de Santiago de
Chile, Universidad de Atacama, Universidad de La Serena and Universidad
de Antofagasta (the last four were part of the former Universidad Técnica
del Estado until 1981, UTE), with a low degree granting rate. This happened
mainly because it is a profession that, although well paid, often involves
sacrifices that other careers do not require, such as distant workplaces,
absence from home several days per week, physical condition adequate
for field work, enduring sometimes complicated environmental conditions
(extreme cold or heat, dryness, darkness, exposure to the sun, excessive
dust, toxic gases), long travelling time, among others. Historically, because
of the aforementioned issues, the students’ preference for this career had
not been high, often being left at the end of their application preferences.
Furthermore, from the standpoint of the cost to the institution, mining
engineering is an expensive career due to the need to have adequate
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laboratories and well trained professionals to equip and maintain them.
Some examples of this kind of laboratories are rock mechanics, metallurgy,
mineral concentration, structural geology, petrology, mineralogy, vein
microscopy, mine ventilation and mine services. To this we must add
fieldwork or visits to site, which require having permanent transport and
maintenance of the vehicles and equipment used in the field. All this in
addition to the requirements of the basic science and engineering courses
(physics, chemistry, computing, among others).
Chile concentrates between 20% Table 1 - Evolution of the sala-
and 30% of the world’s copper ries of mining engineers over
reserves. This is significant because the last years
starting in 2003 a growth began in
the demand for commodities by a Year Average Salary (USD)
growing China, and later India, that 2006 2819
led to a super cycle in the price of 2007 2687
copper, which rose from 1.0 USD/ 2008 3539
pound to more than 2.5 USD/ 2009 4220
pound over the last ten years. This 2010 3903
caused an increase in the number 2011 4299
of mining projects and turned 2012 4351
profitable several deposits that 2013 4473
in the past had been considered 2014 5053
non profitable. Consequently, 2015 5487
employment of mining engineers
reached its historical maximum, and they were considered highly desirable
professionals in the market, both by producing mining companies and
by companies providing supplies and services to the mining industry,
increasing the average salaries even more. Since 2007 mining engineers
became some of the best paid professionals in the country, surpassing the
average income of geologists, physicians and dentists. Using information
from different media, Table 1 shows the evolution of the salary of mining
engineers five years after graduation, which doubles from 2007 to
2015([Link], 2015) (Universia, 2015) (Laborum, 2015) (Servicio
de Información de Educación Superior del Ministerio de Educación (SIES),
2006-2015).
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New careers
In 1981 the military regime of A. Pinochet issued the General Law of
Universities, which “liberalized” the educational system. With this new
legal body the dictatorship not only started the privatization of higher
education through the possibility of creating private universities without
state dependence, but it disrupted completely the network of existing public
universities, regionalizing them and dividing them into countless universities
with no relation to each other, in a deregulated higher education system.
Due to the greater demand for mining engineers, in the 2000 – 2009 period
new academic offerings appeared, such as the Universidad de Tarapacá,
Universidad de Aconcagua, Universidad Pedro de Valdivia and Inacap. Some
of these offered different majors and outlets adapted to the clients’ needs.
Cochilco is an “Agency of the State of Chile that advises the Government
in matters related to the production of copper and its by-products… It
also protects the State’s interests in its mining enterprises through the
supervision and evaluation of their management and investments, and it
advises the Ministries of Finance and Mining in the preparation and follow-
up of their budgets” (Cochilco, 2016). In 2010 Cochilco’s Evaluation and
Strategy Division, in its report called “Analysis of Demand – Offer of Project
Engineering in the Mining Industry” stated that in the 2010-2020 decade
mining investments for more than 50 billion US dollars would be expected,
a figure that in the following year was updated to 90 billion US dollars.
Furthermore, Cochilco presented “Engineering Needs for the next 10 years”
at the Institute of Mining Engineers of Chile (Instituto de Ingenieros de
Minas de Chile), stressing the existence of a consensus in the mining sector
projecting a deficit of human resources for the coming years, when the
supply should grow 40% per year over the 2011-2015 period (Instituto de
Ingenieros de Minas de Chile, 2010). In the face of this panorama, from 2011
there was a large increase of the academic offerings of several universities,
both state and privately owned, and also of professional institutes (PI). This
is illustrated in Figure 1, which shows an explosive increase in the offerings
starting in 2011, the year in which the U. del Mar, U. Católica del Norte,
and U. Adolfo Ibáñez presented their offerings; in 2012 it was the U. La
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República, U. Andrés Bello, Table 2 - Increase in the number of ca-
UCINF, and U. Católica de reers and campuses.
Valparaíso; in 2013 the
PI Dr. Virginio Gómez G., Year No. of universities Total
U. de Las Américas, U. and professional campuses
del Desarrollo, U. de Los institutes offering
mine engineering
leones, U. de Talca, U. de
2010 9 45
Concepción, and U. Santa
María; in 2014 U. Santo 2011 12 57
Tomas, U. de Viña del Mar, 2012 17 57
U. San Sebastián, U. Central 2013 24 87
de Chile, PI Libertador De 2014 29 117
Los Andes, and PI CIISA 2015 25 119
(Servicio de Información
de Educación Superior del Ministerio de Educación (SIES), 2006-2015).
Table 2 shows the number of universities and the names of the careers
that were offering mining engineering.
Figure 1: Academic offerings of registered and graduated students
per year.
12000
Total no. of students
11000
Total no. of vacancies
10000
Total no. of 1st years
9000
Total no. of graduates
8000
No of Students
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2016
Year
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The data were obtained from the information available at the Ministry of
Education (Servicio de Información de Educación Superior del Ministerio
de Educación (SIES), 2006-2015), whose digital information is available
only for the last eight years. Figure 1 shows that the academic offerings
have increased the total number of registered students, exceeding more
than five-fold the number of first year students that there were in 2007. A
difference is also seen between the offerings and first year registrations,
showing clearly that registration is not always completed or else there is
overflow. Another important data in this figure is that the total graduates
come from admissions to first year at least four years earlier for mining
technicians, five years earlier for mining engineering, and six years
earlier for mine civil engineering. Therefore, to relate the retentions we
must consider this time lag, to which must be added the actual average
graduating time, which is 18 semesters (9 years) for mine civil engineering,
13 semesters (6.5 years) for mining technicians and mining engineers –
see Table 3, with information provided by some universities (Servicio de
Información de Educación Superior del Ministerio de Educación (SIES),
2006-2015).
Table 3 - First-year dropouts and actual duration of the career
Career University First Year Actual
Dropouts Duration
(semesters)
Mine Civil Engineering U. de Atacama 12% -
U. de La Serana 12% 18.6
U. de Santiago de Chile 13% 17.1
Mining Technician U. de Antofagasta 29% -
U. de La Serana 23% 14.9
U. de Santiago de Chile 26% 12.7
IP INACAP 32% 11.1
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Projected Supply and Demand of Graduates:
Employability
Over the last four years the competences committee of the Mining Council
(it is an association of the large mining producers), through the Fundación
Chile, has prepared the study “Labor Force of Large Scale Mining in
Chile” (“Fuerza Laboral de la Gran Minería Chilena”) in its different annual
versions (Centro de Innovación en Capital Humano para el Consejo Minero,
2011) (Centro de Innovación en Capital Humano para el Consejo Minero,
2012) (Centro de Innovación en Capital Humano para el Consejo Minero,
2013) (Centro de Innovación en Capital Humano para el Consejo Minero,
2014). This document reports on the specialists that will be required in
the projected next ten years in the different specialization areas of mining
and on the projected offerings, according to that time’s training offers.
The study, updated with 2014 data, gives the projected total demand
for mining engineers in Large Scale Mining, both by mining companies
and by suppliers, in their different roles such as extraction professionals,
engineers specialized in extraction, extraction supervisors, and processing
supervisors. This projection is made taking into account both the projects
on file for future development as well as the economic perspectives of
future demand for commodities.
On the other hand, according to Table 3, which shows dropouts (2014) from
the first year of a career and taking into account the graduation rate of
students six years later, we can make a projection of the potential graduates
who will get their degrees in the 2014-2023 period, assuming that the
retention rate is increasing and the actual duration of the careers is getting
shorter due to the current (and future) requirements for accreditation of
the careers by the Ministry of Education. In this way, different retention
scenarios are projected in the careers (offers of engineers) with 30%, 40%,
50% and 60% since 2014, and the demand for mining engineers in Large
Scale Mining, and this is reflected in Figure 2. To this end it has been
assumed that the number of registrations remains constant (the same
figure as in 2014) over the next ten years and that no campuses, careers or
universities are closing.
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Similarly, Figure 3 shows the projection of the accumulated offer at 30%,
40%, 50% and 60% retention in the careers since 2014, and the demand for
mining engineers accumulated in Large Scale Mining between 2014 and
2023. It should be noted that Figures 2 and 3 consider only new graduates
since 2014, reaching around 18,000 new mining engineers in 2023 if 60%
retention is considered (the worst case) and almost 9.000 new mining
engineers if 30% retention is considered (best case).
Figure 2: Projection of the offer of graduates according to the aver-
age retention and the demand for mining engineers in Large Scale
Mining per year.
2500
No of graduates/demand per year
2000
1500
1000
500
0
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Year
Projection of offers 30% retention Projection of offers 40% retention
Projection of offers 50% retention Projection of offers 60% retention
Large Scale Mining demand
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Figure 3: Projection of the accumulated offer of graduates accord-
ing to the average retention and the accumulated demand for min-
ing engineers in Large Scale Mining per year.
Projection of offers 30% [Link].
20000
Projection of offers 40% [Link].
18000
Projection of offers 50% [Link].
16000
Projection of offers 60% [Link].
14000
Acum. Large Scale Mining demand
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Year
Analysis and Reflections
Making a brief analysis of the data shown in Figures 2 and 3, the difference
between offer and demand would give by 2023 in the best case an
employability in Large Scale Mining of 21.4% (with 30% retention) and of
12% (with 60% retention) in the worst case. This would mean that in the
worst case there would be one out of ten engineers employed, and in the
best case, two out of ten.
However, it can be argued that the employability does not consider
middle and small scale mining, plus engineering companies, services, and
mining support in these fields, or else the creation of new companies,
and innovation that can cover part of the offer. Unfortunately, no current
or projected data on employability in this respect are available, so a
simple exercise can be made, making the assumption in which three
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cases are defined: the pessimistic, the moderate, and the optimistic. The
“pessimistic” considers only employability in Large Scale Mining (L.S.M.)
and its suppliers, or “x1”, i.e., the data of demand contributed by the study
of Labor Competences of the Mining Council, which have been projected
in Figure 4. The “moderate” considers that beside Large Scale Mining there
is an equivalent in middle-scale and small-scale mining plus others, which
can contribute twice, or “x2”, of the contribution of Large Scale Mining
to employability. And the “optimistic” considers that beside Large Scale
Mining there is an equivalent in middle- and small-scale mining plus
others which can contribute three times, or “x 3” of the contribution of
Large Scale Mining in terms of employability. In this way, this scenario can
be graphed considering 40% and 50% retention in the offer of graduates
with respect to registrations in first year, and considering a Pesimistic (x 1),
Moderate (x 2) and Optimistic (x3) demand, as shown in Figure 4. It has
been estimated that 40% and 50% retention in the offer of graduates with
respect to registrations in first year is a most realistic scenario. All this is
graphed in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Projection of employability in three scenarios according to
retention per year.
L.S.M. x 3/50% Ret. L.S.M. x 2/50% Ret.
L.S.M. x 1/50% Ret. L.S.M. x 3/40% Ret.
L.S.M. x 2/40% Ret. L.S.M. x 1/40% Ret.
70%
60%
Employability (%)
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Year
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Under the stated scenarios, employability would reach an optimistic
scenario at 43% employability (with three times the employment projected
by Large Scale Mining and 40% retention of first year registration), while
in the pessimistic case the employability would be 12% (only with the
employment projected for Large Scale Mining and 50% retention of first
year registrations).
In Chile there has been an important drop in the employability of recent
graduates according to an article in “El Mercurio” newspaper, in which
inquiries were made at several recruiting companies such as First Job,
Page Personnel, and Adecco Profesional. According to this “mining supply
companies are those that have mostly restricted their offers of untrained
people between April 2013 and April 2015 by 93%, followed by mining
companies, with a drop of 77%...” (El Mercurio, 2015).
A survey made by the Psychology Institute of the Pontificia Universidad
Católica for the National Youth Institute (Instituto Nacional de la Juventud)
(Instituto de Psicología de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 2014)
shows a trend of young people preferring nowadays a good working
environment, a good relation with their colleagues, and satisfaction
with the work they are doing. Because of the characteristics mentioned
previously about mining professionals must face, it is imperative that those
who choose to study mining engineering do so by real vocation, since the
near future is uncertain and it is highly probable that there will be low
employability. It would be regrettable for someone to study something
that they do not like only because they believe that they will get a high
salary, wasting their financial resources that are often scarce to pay for
their career and end up unemployed a large part of their life.
It can be inferred that in a scenario with low employability there will be two
important effects: a substantial salary drop, reaching values even lower
than those of 2006, and on the other hand, with so many offers of available
engineers, they may displace to current mining technicians, occupying or
competing for the positions that they occupy, such as nonprofessional
foremen and supervisors. A possible third effect may be added, which is
the migration of professionals to work in other countries.
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A point that must be kept in mind is that students who have finished their
studies but have not graduated also compete for jobs, in many cases
getting their degrees several semesters or even years after leaving school,
so this group can be an additional competing factor in work positions.
As a result, it can be stated that the careers linked with mining are not
sustainable according to the effort and money invested in studying a long
career and considering how costly is now education in Chile, all this in
relation to the number of careers opened nowadays and the projected
demand for professionals.
Finally, a question may be asked: Is it necessary for the State to invest
money in training professionals with such an uncertain occupational
future?
Conclusions and Recommendations
The academic exercise made in this paper gives a view of the perspective
faced by mining engineers. Based on the sources examined and on the
projected scenarios and the assumptions made, employability by 2023
may, in the best case, be close to 43%, and in the worst case around 12%.
One recommendation for the State is it must establish development
policies for the country at middle and long-range in order to answer
questions such as: what do we want to be or where do we want to be ten
or thirty years from now? This would allow setting goals, and according
to them, establish policies and plan the actions to achieve them, so it can
be made better use of the resources to finance those careers that have
priority for the country and will allow reaching those goals.
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