Suits and Boots | The Sustainable Business Podcast

Boots or Bots? Building the Mining Workforce of the Future

• TDi Sustainability • Season 1 • Episode 16

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Across the globe, the mining sector is undergoing a transformation. Rapid technological change, automation, and digitisation are reshaping the very nature of mining work — creating new roles, requiring new skills, and shifting the dynamics of traditional operations. At the same time, the industry faces increasing pressure to attract and retain talent in a highly competitive global labour market. These requirements sit alongside, and are shaped by, the growing need to ensure that mining is not only innovative and productive, but also inclusive and sustainable — with diverse teams, equitable opportunities, and strong leadership cultures that foster continuous learning and development. So, how can the industry respond? What does it take to develop a workforce that’s ready for the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow?

Speakers on this episode:

  • Bill Cobb | VP and Chief Sustainability Officer - Freeport McMoRan
  • Dr Kate Thornton | CEO ABMEC - British Mining Trade Association 
  • Clara Segón | Standards Manager - TDi Sustainability

This episode is part of the TDi Sustainability special series of podcasts produced in advance of the 2025 Resourcing Tomorrow event that will take place in London between 2-4 December. Find out more about the event>








SPEAKER_01:

Hello and welcome to this special edition of Suits and Boots. This is the TDI podcast series in conjunction with Resourcing Tomorrow. And in this series, speakers at this year's Resourcing Tomorrow event will discuss some of the key themes that will be covered at the conference. I'm Clara Segon and I am standards manager at TDI sustainability. Today's episode is on challenges and opportunities in the mining workforce. Across the globe, the mining sector is undergoing a transformation. Rapid technological change, automation, and digitization are reshaping the very nature of mining work. This is creating new roles, requiring new skills, and also shifting the dynamics of traditional operations. At the same time, the industry faces increasing pressure to attract and retain talent in a highly competitive global labor market. These requirements sit alongside and are shaped by the growing need to ensure that mining is not only innovative and productive, but also inclusive and sustainable, with diverse teams, equitable opportunities, and strong leadership cultures that foster continuous learning and development. So, how can the industry respond? What does it take to develop a workforce that is ready for the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow? I'm delighted to be joined today for this discussion by Bill Cobb and Dr. Kate Thornton. Together, we are going to explore strategies for attracting the next generation of mining professionals, investing in upskilling and reskilling, and also building inclusive future-focused teams in a rapidly changing environment. Bill is the Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer at Freeport, and in this role, he is responsible for environmental affairs, compliance, permitting, social performance and impact investment, human rights and indigenous peoples engagement, sustainability and responsible production frameworks, mine closure and reclamation, management of discontinued operations, accountable executive of closed tailing storage facilities, and remediation of legacy sites. He has worked for FreePort for 21 years and has more than 40 years of experience in the sector. And also today we are joined by Dr. Kate Thornton, who is the CEO of APMEC, the Association for British Mining Engineering and Consultancy, the UK's trade body representing the global interest of British mining supply chains. Throughout her career, Kate has championed innovation, safety, and environmental responsibility in engineering. She brings a unique blend of technical expertise, strategic leadership, and a passion for sustainable development in mining and engineering. So welcome, Kate and Bill, and thank you so much for joining us today. The mining industry is undergoing a significant transformation. In your view, Bill, what are the forces currently reshaping workforce demands?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, thanks for the question. Good to be with you today. So I think there's a couple of things. First is competition for key skills in light of the retiring baby boomer generation. I mean, you know, there's a whole bunch of people, a lot of institutional knowledge, a lot of talent that's retiring, particularly over the next five years. I think there's a recognition globally that universities aren't graduating sufficient traditional technical skills. You know, for us, that'd be mining engineering, metallurgical engineering, geology. But I think it's more than that. You know, FT had an article last week I read that the UK defense sector needed welders, data scientists, electricians, engineers. You know, it's interesting. Those are the exact same folks we need as a sector. There's a global imbalance between where the workout teams are and the skills being produced and the skills that are needed. At the same time, I think there's a growing media attention, particularly within the sector, that you know, we've got a persistent challenge in overcoming outdated perceptions that we're an unsafe, dirty, low-tech industry. And that's you know, making it challenging attracting new talent. And I think we all recognize modern mining is powered by advanced technologies. We got data-driven systems that require highly skilled and tech savvy individuals. And so changing misperceptions, I think, is essential to attracting new talent and positioning us as forward-looking, innovative, and that we play a vital role in the global economy. And that last piece has certainly gotten a lot more attention. And so I think the other piece is particularly with the young folk, expectations are changing. You know, people want more than just a job. They're looking to provide individual purpose, individual growth, and be part of a culture that reflects their values. And we certainly see variability in different parts of the world on those themes. You know, our operations in South America have lots of applicants, low turnover, same thing in Indonesia, and yet in North America, it's an incredibly challenging recruiting environment. And so I think, you know, to sum it up, I think, you know, there's a bunch of factors going on right this second, um, both globally and locally, but I think overarching the competition for talent is going to be increasing.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you, Bill. To link to the question uh we just asked, I was wondering uh what Kate uh thinks from AbMEC's perspective about how is the UK mining, equipment and technology sector responding to these changes in workforce expectations.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you for that. So I agree with everything Bill said there, but I'd also add that I think in the UK, oh the people's perceptions of the mining sector is actually a lot worse because obviously a lot of people remember back to the 80s and the mining strikes and the disasters we've had here. And it's a sector that people are actively discouraged from going into, really, rather than encouraged, as we saw with in other areas of the world. Um, for the mining equipment technology sector in the UK, like we've got all of these challenges. I think everyone's trying to work out which one to unpick first. Um, and like for APEC ourselves, we are sponsoring 15, a minimum of 15 students to attend our upcoming conference so they can actually see firsthand what people are doing. And I think one of the things that we all need to do, and it goes against a very British trait of not, you know, promoting anything here, is we need to be actually going out telling people more about what we're doing and the benefit it brings, because there's that huge disconnect between understanding why we need mining for a sustainable future, people don't understand the role it has in everyone's day-to-day lives. And we've all got a responsibility to go out, discuss this, and educate people a little bit more. And I think that's what we're starting to see now. There's work with the minerals matter team, and we've got Camborn School of Miners who are doing a lot of that as well. The Institute Materials, Minerals and Mining, and individual companies are starting to see that and build on that narrative to try and slowly change people's opinions, but we need to change more quickly to meet the demands that we have.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, I agree. I am uh four teenagers at home, so I understand the point about the need to change the perception together and uh work together to make sure newer generations can make uh informed decisions when it comes to their careers or potential careers in mining. Um, going back to Bill and uh Freeport's point of view, what are you seeing on the ground uh in your operations when it comes to shifts and challenges in the mining workforce?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so let me just pick up on what we were just talking about regarding perceptions. Um, and this is kind of on the ground real, and this is an example, it's two months old. Yeah, we have internships for college students. Um, and when we had a collective meeting a couple months ago, we had two women this past summer that had absolutely no knowledge of mining. One a chemical engineer, one an environmental engineer, but their work assignments gave them a means of you know basically experiencing a different view of the sector. We were quite impressed with both of them. They've got full-time offers, both have accepted. And so, you know, there's ways of changing some of those perceptions, albeit internships are a bit slow in terms of it's an individual at a time. Um, but that's one way of making things different on the ground. Let me give you a completely different on the ground example. Um, turnover rates are really high for truck drivers, particularly in North America, and particularly in remote locations. One solution to that is to pivot to autonomous operations. Um, and we've talked about this on our earnings calls, our Baghdad Arizona site, we've deployed autonomous haul trucks, which can be controlled from a location that is different from the mine site. So we can go to a population center to recruit from, and that's a big shift. But at the same time, we we made that shift with no job loss. And so when we get to talking about upskilling, that was a big part of that transition. We're also seeing demand for skill trades. I think this is a you know a pretty significant issue in most developed countries as we see this competition with other sectors, electricians, mechanics, welders, the technicians to run smart systems. You know, that is a big deal. And to try and address it, we've implemented a pilot program here in the United States to offer paid education certifications in exchange for a three-year work commitment. Again, something on the ground to deal with what we're seeing in terms of challenges for talent. One other piece is obviously a shift for increased number of women in the workforce, particularly in certain functions or certain locations. And again, that means we need to shift our approach, our facilities. We need to provide a psychologically safe, as well as meaningful work environment for our women employees. That's a significant shift. And then lastly, in remote locations, the reality is it just takes us longer to fill roles. Um, and so we're not competing just on pay, but it's also about location, flexibility. Is there or is there not hybrid or remote work opportunities? What does career development look like? Um, and so again, those are some you know immediate 2025, 2026 things that we're seeing on the ground today.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you, Bill. Um, as you were um answering the question, I was reflecting uh on myself and uh my journey as a young woman choosing to work in mining uh 20 years ago in South America. And I agree with you a lot uh on how things have changed and people want purpose, but also uh the importance of having a company culture that is aligned with the values of the person, and uh again uh the point that you made at the end uh about retention, which I find uh extremely important, making sure that once you have captured the talent, you can retain and help uh develop. So thank you so much for uh your answer. Now, thinking about nowadays, um tech and AI and also automation uh are both disruptors and opportunities. So, how do you think this is reshaping the kind of roles that are in demand across mining operations?

SPEAKER_02:

Um so I think it's a great opportunity for the sector. Um you speak to young people today and they realize the value of technology, but you know, they don't actually realize that the mining sectors are the early adopters of these new technologies because they have the money and the infrastructure to help develop it further. And it's a great way. We can we've got some great examples we can go and showcase people that you want to be involved in technology, you want to be at the forefront, you know, come and work in the mining sector here. It's a safe environment because all of these technologies are making it safer and cleaner. And you know, we should actually be actively promoting this to anyone and everyone who will listen. I don't know if you've got a different perspective on that, Bill.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I know, totally, totally agree. And people don't really realize that you know, we are a sector that really runs on big data. I mean, if you think about optimizing operations, dealing with lowering your cost, you know, we collect lots of data, um, which means we need people like data scientists. Those are roles that didn't exist, you know, 10 years ago. And to your point, you know, we are an early adopter of technology. Uh, we've been doing this, I think, quietly for a long time. And as things shift, we're now, you know, looking for the automation engineers, the AI specialists, as well as more data scientists. And that's not gonna stop. That is going to increase going forward. And as we think about lowering our cost profiles, again, we're gonna have to bring in technologies, most likely from um related sectors, whether it's oil and gas or manufacturing, things that you know are outside of our sector and look to adapt them. And again, those technology people are gonna be absolutely imperative. So I think you know, it's you're absolutely right. We need to do a better job of communicating where we are in terms of advancing and using technology because it's uh a new frontier out there in terms of where the sector's going.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you, Bill, uh, for expanding a little bit on those roles that uh perhaps didn't exist uh 10 years ago, but now you've mentioned the need for that data scientist, AI specialist who have become now essential uh for mining. To continue our conversation uh and expanding on the topic of attracting uh talent to the industry, a question for Kate. Um, I know the mining sector often struggles uh with its image among uh young people and emerging talent, like we were uh mentioning before. So, what strategies have you seen to make mining a more attractive career choice and to work towards the development of the next generation of mining leaders?

SPEAKER_02:

So I think we're still struggling with this quite a lot, really. And there's lots of things going on. I think I mentioned a few of them earlier. Um but one of the things that I've seen recently is there's been a new booklet for school children. And when I say school children, I mean specifically key stage one in the UK, which is um, I'm hoping I'm getting this right, between the ages of five to seven, and it really shows, like in a nice, easy to digest and understand way why mining is important. And I think this is a problem like um Bill alluded to earlier, that all of art these sectors we're facing across a whole range of sectors, we've got a huge skill shortage. And in the UK, when you look at it, the most people have ruled out science and engineering when you go from primary schools to secondary schools. So for our international audience, I'm hoping I got this right, this is about the ages 11 to 12, and so it's a drop-off of like over 70% of P student, sorry, or children, had already discounted science and engineering. And what I'd love to see from a strategy is actually you know going into the key stage one, key stage two. So under the age of 11, 12, 13, I'm really showcasing what this can do because it's it's at that group. If we target on that group, we're gonna grow the pool of talent that we can pick from. But if we're aiming for the like older age groups, people have already specialized or ruled things out and said, you know, what this isn't for me, I can't do this, I can't do that, because they they believe it from what they've heard from the teachers, or they've seen that there's no examples out there for them to say, oh, they're like me and we can do this. So if we start, I'd love to see a strategy where it starts a lot earlier and builds on it throughout children's school careers. So you can start young and you really open up that network for them. Because that's what I'd love to see going forward.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh as you were talking, I was thinking uh when my kids were little and in school, they they were asked to make a draw about uh what their parents did at work, and they would always struggle to understand uh what I would do in mining. So sometimes they would they would draw me uh driving a truck, uh, other times it was uh digging digging a whole hole on the ground. Uh so I think that these type of programs, when you start early at the age of five, seven, or target 11 to 13, apart from opening uh that possibility for them to picture themselves in a mining career in the future, it also helps with the wider purpose of changing perception. Even if that child decides not to go for mining, at least it has been more informed in early stages about uh what mining is and the possibilities that this brings. So thank you so much for answering. Bill, um, what particular skills or educational backgrounds do you believe the mining industry should be targeting more proactively to meet the changes that we're seeing in workforce demands? I know Freeport, you mentioned you have some um programs in place uh for education. So I wonder if this is related with the question.

SPEAKER_00:

Totally related with the question. And let me just pick up, I was gonna finish with this comment, but let me start with it, because we were just talking about kids and targeting kids. You know, one of the key partnerships that we have had now for several years, it's with Discovery Channel. Um, we've created a program called Dig Into Mining. It's targeted at younger children through high school and really targeting children whose parents are not familiar with the mining sector at all to try and get at that early education, plant a seed before they ever get to college. You know, some of those kinds of partnerships, collaborations are absolutely important for developing the pipeline. And then once they get to university, um, we do have partnerships in place with major universities that we rely on for technical graduates. That's funding of professors, their research and efforts, funding infrastructure, program development, but but most importantly, providing internships and then hiring the graduates. Start of your question, the skills. Look, the sector still needs mining engineers, we still need geologists, we still need metallurgists. But you know, what we've looked at is, you know, we can use civils or geotechs and teach the mining engineering. Chemical engineers can be great metallurgists, they can also be great environmental people. We're having to kind of work with what we can get. We still need civil and construction engineers to build facilities, but we also need the same skill set to reclaim the closed ones. So we've already talked about the roles that didn't exist 10 years ago: data scientists, automation process people, software development, you know, those are the developing skill sets, you know, that we're looking to bring on as well. So it's kind of the traditional piece, and then it's the developing piece as we lean into technology going forward. And then coming back, again, need to really emphasize this key point. We need to start with the young kids and germinate some seeds that make this sector attractive.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you, Phil. Um I think this uh this is excellent because we were um started a conversation uh talking about attracting talent, but then you made a very good point about the need for reskilling and uh upskilling. Once you have attracted the talent, how can you use those skills to apply them in different roles? So thank you so much for talking about that. But uh going back to the careers of the future, and when we were talking about trust in the mining sector, do you also think that there is a need to build trust in AI amongst mining workforces?

SPEAKER_00:

Um I think the answer, short answer is yes. But I, you know, I don't think it's just necessarily AI in and of itself. I think it's kind of the technology development and bringing in new technology. And I think that's you know an important element here that whether it's the new technologies that make us more efficient, whether it's you know the use of artificial intelligence to try and make us more efficient as well. Look, it's it's not just what the technology does, right? It's what it means in terms of people individually. When we made this shift to autonomous haul trucks at Baghdad, we made the promise there was going to be no job loss. And so that is a critical element here. It's it gives us the opportunity to find people new roles, change some of those haul truck drivers into remote control operators. And so again, that's just education, is taking time with people. The focus really is not so much on the tool itself, it's building a culture of transparency, uh, communications, continuous learning and education. And so I think you know, it's a combination of focusing on the people in order to build that trust. It's not just about the tools.

SPEAKER_01:

To expand on that, I would like to ask Kate uh if you think there is a gap between the pace of tech innovation and the pace of workforce training in the sector.

SPEAKER_02:

Um yes. Um I'm gonna say it's not just specific to this sector, it's to most sectors really, that only a slight what I've seen in other sectors is hire and train up a slight number of people within these technologies. When actually going back to what Bill said about reskilling, we should be opening it up to anyone who's interested and wants to learn because you know it'll not only improve their prospects, but it'll improve their understanding and willingness to adopt these new technologies if it's if it's not hidden. As soon as you put someone behind closed doors, people get a lot more aware of it. But if you're willing to go out and speak openly, provide, even if it's just you know, base level training of this is what we're doing, this is the impact, you know, if you want to know more, you can do this. These things I think we should all be doing is standard to improve, like the previous question you asked about improving impact and accessibility, but also you know, giving people those opportunities there. So I think, like I said, it's it's a wide ranging problem, not one that's just limited to our sector.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you, Kate. I know Bill, uh you were mentioning earlier uh when we were discussing upskilling or reskilling, um, you mention um how the possibilities are to, for example, to have a geologist uh suddenly start working more in um environment uh department or so on. Do you have any examples of successful workforce development initiatives from Freeport that address upskilling or reskilling?

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks for that question. So short answer, yes. Um, I've already talked about what we did at Baghdad when we switched to autonomous haul trucks and no job loss, and committed to retraining those individuals, finding new roles for them. Um, let me give you a slightly different example of upskilling or reskilling. So we have a new copper smelter in Indonesia. It's one of the largest of its kind in the world. I was there on Saturday. One of the things we were talking about was that we had to work with the skills that were available in the local marketplace. There are not a lot of copper smelters in Indonesia. There are some nickel refineries, but not a lot of copper smelters. And so we basically had to take the entire operations team and train them how to operate all aspects of the smelter in the refinery. And that meant sending our new hires to learn at our smelters in the United States and Spain, as well as our copper refineries that included technicians. Other sense of other part of this was bringing our people from the United States and Spain to Indonesia to basically do on-the-job training of those people as we were commissioning the smelter itself. And so, you know, there's different ways of thinking about that term, upskilling and reskilling. We traditionally think about it of taking our existing resources, you know, improving their skill sets. In the case of the Indonesian situation, it was just taking the skills that we had available in the marketplace and educating people. Here's what a copper smelter is all about. I've talked about the skills workforce development program we've got. We're partnering with a nonprofit here in Arizona that works with universities, um, community colleges for those programs. And we're just in the early stages of that, but we had more applicants. I think we had 80 plus applicants for 25 positions. And so, again, right now we're very encouraged in terms of the potential success of that program. But let me just finish with one other key skill set that we may not traditionally think about because the question's kind of posed from a technical perspective. But one key skill is leadership. And what we've focused on over the last couple of years is really training our new frontline supervisors, because we've had significant turnover in that role. Superintendents and early stage managers on how to effectively develop and lead their teams. And if you think about it, you know, not just the technical piece here, but the leadership piece, the people interaction, communication skills, incentivizing work, but at the same time emphasizing safety. And those are things that really are imperative in terms of making things work on the ground. So slightly different twist to the reskilling question.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you so much for adding this on leadership. Um I think it's uh the perfect topic uh to close the discussion on reskilling and upskilling, because uh again, I was uh as you were explaining, I was thinking about myself. And uh when I had to take my the option for my degree, uh sustainability wasn't really um a thing uh in Argentina back then, 30 years ago, 25 years ago. So I started working in mining, actually supporting uh logistics, and it was uh thanks to uh management uh and uh leadership, a specific person that saw in me skills that I didn't know I had and offered me the opportunity to swap departments to start uh what it was back then, the corporate social uh responsibility area that that didn't exist uh before that. So I do agree with you that it's really important to put the focus on supervisors, uh managers. Superintendents, not only for them to have a performance or plans for their teams, to also for them to be the example when it comes to safety, but in the end, it's them who are in direct contact with those employees every day. So it's up to them to be able to identify those employees that have skills or potentials to work on something different and to encourage and motivate them to do so. So thank you for bringing the topic of leadership into the discussion. I'm going to swift now the conversation because I do want to have the opportunity to touch base into diversity, equity, and inclusion. So I'll start with Kate and ask how does greater diversity contribute to building a more future-ready workforce?

SPEAKER_02:

Without it, we wouldn't be future ready, would be the answer. So the more diverse workforce you have, the greater number of perspectives and backgrounds and experiences you're pulling together. If you're only going to hire people who've got studies at the same college or university, who've had the same teachers, they're all going to have that same benchmark of knowledge and will come up with the same ideas and the same solutions based on what they know. Hiring different people, whether it's different genders, um, from different places in the world. And also, especially when we look at it from a sustainability perspective and speaking to different cultures, you know, all of those different factors, having a more diverse workforce helps and gets you to see these different, see all uh come up with a range of potential solutions and then discuss as a group which is the best fit for this. You know, it applies with technology and everything within we've discussed today. So it's vitally important.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you, Kate. And uh, Bill, from from uh your uh experience at Freeport, what advice would you give uh mining leaders seeking to build inclusive cultures that genuinely recruit and retain diverse challenges?

SPEAKER_00:

You know, at Freeport, you know, we see inclusion as a strength, uh, particularly when it comes to building the workforce for the future. Um, from my perspective, inclusion's crucial to support diversity, but diversity doesn't guarantee inclusion. So inclusion brings us back to something we've kind of touched on a bit here, corporate culture. And I think that's a really key point, you know, that I think for all of us, challenge here is are we providing the appropriate corporate culture? Is it a collaborative environment that people feel respected, empowered to contribute, make a difference? Um, and I think that's absolutely imperative going forward. And I think for us it's it's challenging because we produce a product, we don't control its price, we control our cost. And take a look at the large number of companies, literally right this minute, that are facing major cost pressures and reducing headcounts by large percentages. And it's a challenge for this sector. It's one I experienced in my late 20s, and it pushed me out of the sector into consulting, and then I came back 20 years ago. But the cyclical swings, you know, have been a detriment to this sector for the last 40 years. And so, you know, in light of the cost pressures against the commodity price environment, you know, what is that culture that we're maintaining over time that is attractive to the workforce? And I had this conversation in Indonesia over the weekend with the leaders at the site, as well as some of our workers, because we're creating a new operation. And creating culture at a new operation is a challenge. And in this particular case, it's a challenge because we only have a few longtime Freeport leaders at the site. Most of the team is new. And that means this is going to be a journey. It's going to take time for that team to understand its policies and expectations. But I got to sit down and talk to about a dozen or so operators from across the facility for about an hour, hour and a half. And as I said, we took a number of those people and sent them to the US and Spain for training. And in the conversation, one of those people who went to the United States commented that during his two-week stay at Morensi, Big Copper Operation in the United States, he said he felt like he was part of a big family for two weeks. And I asked others for their feedback. Did they all feel like they were part of something unique, recognizing it's relatively new? None of these folks had any experience in copper. But all of them said yes. And I think, you know, that experience kind of reinforces here that the corporate culture is going to be absolutely imperative to building that future workforce. As we started this conversation, we said we're competing against all sectors for talent, and people need to see that we value inclusion, we're creating opportunities for personal growth, that culture respects and embraces the values of the individuals, and that's going to make a difference going forward. So I think that kind of summarizes my uh my recommendations uh to my peers.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you, Bill. As we uh start to uh wrap up our podcast today, um and um listening to uh both of you, it was mentioned on different occasions, um, different partnerships, different collaborations. Uh I think Bill mentioned uh Discovery Channel. We also talk about um partnerships with schools, with colleges, and so on. So I wanted to ask Kate what role do industry associations, governments, and academic institutions play in supporting mining workshop development?

SPEAKER_02:

Um we play an important role, but it all relies on that collaboration and communication. And so we need to make sure we're all talking to each other, we're all actually as well. I mean, it's not just about talking, it's about listening to each other and finding ways to work together to meet these needs and to develop the people and the training that's required to meet these future needs, and so we can only do that if we're all prepared to sit, talk, listen at times when it's gonna be quite difficult, and then work together to establish this and implement it for people. And that takes time. And like as Bill said earlier, like you know, there's cost restrictions, everyone's feeling the pinch at the moment, and it can be one of these things that everyone puts on the back burner, but actually, you know, now is the time we should be investing it, as Bill said at the start, you know, we're gonna lose a load of talent within the next five years. And if we push it off to a time where it's more fiscally viable, we're not gonna have the people there to help, you know, do the training, pass on that knowledge. And so we really need everyone to start working together on it now.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you, Kate. To uh wrap up the podcast and and looking ahead, I would like to ask a question to both of you uh about what does a future ready mining workforce look like for you? Do you want to start, Bill?

SPEAKER_00:

Sure. I a couple of short answers to that. Um it's a workforce that is safe, it's skilled, and it's adaptable. And all three of those I think are equally critical. Recognizing that that workforce is likely going to be balanced in terms of experience levels. So, as I said earlier, as the baby boomer generation retires over the next five years, and we replace it with younger um individuals, you know, it's it's how we work across that range of experience. And so, again, your knowledge bases, um, being able to be tech savvy, if you will, accessing information, uh, boiling it down to what's important, those are all gonna be really critical. But at the end of the day, we still need experienced technical people. We still need those mining engineers, geologists, metallurgists, we're gonna need those skilled trades, the electrician, the mechanics, etc. And we're gonna need those technology savvy individuals. I can't stress the data scientists enough, all working side by side. Um, and so in the end, it's just not about the technology piece. It's having a workforce that understands safety, brings the skills that are necessary, but they're adaptable. It's the people who know how to use the technology, improve it every day, um, and deliver safe production.

SPEAKER_02:

And Kate on the same question. Um, yes, I think Bill gave a great answer there. For me, a future-ready mining workforce is a group of people who are eager to learn, experience new technologies, um, a new way of working, um, eager to work with people and provide that feedback, that they are supported in their development by the companies that they work for, and they're supportive of each other in their careers, they're supportive of promoting mining and what it's doing in a sustainable, safe way. And yeah, I think that's everything for me. I I think Bill gave a great answer, so there's very little to add there.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you so much to both uh for sharing your insights today. Uh, we had time to explore uh how the mining workforce is being shaped by technology, by skills development, and also by inclusive cultures and how collaboration across companies, industry groups, and institutions is essential. So a big thank you to our guests, uh Kate and Bill, for joining, and also to our listeners uh for tuning in. We hope you leave with a new perspective on building a future-ready mining workforce. And until next time, I hope to see you at this year's event where the conversation on addressing mining workforce challenges will be continued, and you will hear more on today's topic from Bill and Kate. Thanks for listening.