Mining Career Prospects – What are the choices?
The mining industry is undergoing a 2nd boom around the world, with no shortage in demand from emerging economies, what does this mean for those seeking career opportunities?
There are some industries you should definitely consider, especially if you are skilled professionals such as civil engineers, geologist or environmental engineers, here are some suggestions for you:
1. Oil industry – the oil industry could move up quite strongly due to political reasons and with attractive salary and remuneration – employers are located in: Canada, USA, UK, Russia, Australia and Brazil as well as Middle East. The newly planned pipeline across Canada and the United States should be approved despite of the protests from environmental activists, as this can effectively change USA’s oil import policy, and substantially increase its import from Canada, this will have a long term positive impact on the oil industry in Canada and the United States.
Another interesting sector in the US is to work with the junior oil companies to recover from old wells, as you may have seen them on TV or read on the Internet, this is actually becoming a big business, and there are quite a few successful stories and many companies are now listed companies.
2. Gas Industry – the natural gas is also an important industry in the energy sector, new developments are underway worldwide including US, Canada, Middle East, Central Asia and Russia
3. Uranium Industry – this industry was impacted by the nuclear crisis in Japan but it is set to rebound because nuclear energy remains as the most developed alternative energy sector in the world. Uranium companies are mostly based in Canada, Australia and South Africa.
Although some countries have changed their nuclear policy, nuclear plants are still being commissioned in China and other emerging economies, even most developed countries will retain its policy to build more nuclear power plants.
4. Gold Industry – the precious metal is the new currency as some analysts have mentioned. It is attracting attention from investors worldwide, and creating job opportunities worldwide. Although gold mines are found in many parts of the world, the top corporate locations remain in Australia, Canada (which controls many gold mines in Canada and South America, as well as Africa), Dubai, UK (headquarter offices) and South Africa.
5. Rare Earth – China controls around 97% of the rare earth at moment, with the majority controlled by the Government. Other resources have been discovered, and recently, major discoveries were made in the oceans. In terms of corporate headquarters, outside China, you can see opportunities in Australia, Canada and United States; as well as Brazil and South Africa.
6. Vanadium & Lithium – these 2 types of metals are becoming important because of their applications relating to the renewable energy sectors. Vanadium is also widely used in the steel industry – for higher grade rebar.
This is important as China has announced its change to adopt higher grade for its new projects in future, and this could drive up demand for vanadium. Vanadium is also used for batteries, at moment, it is a key component for wind energy batteries. Lithium battery is already a proven technology widely used for automotive and telephones, demand for these batteries has increased, and likely to continue so in future as new technologies emerge.
The mining industry is an interesting industry and they are not limited to engineers only. As mentioned earlier, although the mines are based around the world, in terms of the popular corporate headquarter locations – they are mostly concentrated in 6 areas: Australia, Canada, UK, USA, South America and South Africa.
New developments in the emerging economies especially Brazil has seen Brazil emerging as the new headquarter for many South American companies.
As China’& India’s demand for resources continue to grow, and this has created new jobs as well, Hong Kong is also coming up as a destination to consider for mining career opportunities – mainly relating to the finance opportunities for mining companies.
