Mining firms innovate to cope with shortages

By Eric Onstad

LONDON (Reuters) - Global mining firms are unearthing ingenious solutions to grapple with shortages of workers and equipment amid the commodities boom, recruiting retired miners and buying cut-rate equipment from China and Russia, executives said this week.

"We hired some guys out of retirement, that was the only way to survive and get the skills in place," said Pekka Pera, chief executive of Talvivaara (TALV.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), a Finnish firm building a new nickel and zinc mine.

Pera and other executives told the Reuters Global Mining Summit the key was taking advantage of local situations to surmount obstacles thrown up by a global rush to build new mines as metal prices soar to fresh peaks.

The Finnish firm realized that the depressed region around the mine had a lot young untrained and unemployed people, but also a number of retired miners.

"The system was we hired an older guy, a senior professional, and then we'd hire him a sidekick, like Batman and Robin. This old guy will stay about five years and train the younger guy," he said.

"It works well because the senior guy is expensive but the younger ones are very cheap."

Training and keeping workers was the biggest challenge for Major Drilling Group (MDI.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), one of the world's biggest mine drilling companies, Chief Executive Francis McGuire said.

"It takes three to five years to train a driller and it is a very, very skills intensive industry," he said.  Continued...