By Jill Sperling

Digging for opportunities at mining conference

Apr 4, 2017 | 5:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — The mining sector is a major contributor to the B.C. economy. However, the industry has seen a steady decline in gross revenue and employees over the last few years.

“We had a high year, I think it was four years ago, we had a very high year of exploration,” Jane McCaw, president of the Kamloops Exploration Group (KEG) said. “Since then it’s been dragging down, as in everything our industry got hit as well, but it’s on the upswing again.” 

There was no lack of industry representation as the 30th annual KEG Conference and Trade Show kicked off in Kamloops. 

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However, there was a sense that there may be fewer young people looking to pursue a career in mining. 

“There’s a lot of mining people that are my age,” McCaw said. “When we all retire there might be a gap. There’s been studies on it, how do we get people back into the industry?”

Among the crowds of industry professionals, little yellow hard hats could be seen bobbing from booth to booth. Students participating in the Junior Delegate Education Program were learning about mining as a potential future career.

While there was a sense of optimism among the mining community at the conference, proposed mining projects such as KGHM Ajax, have been met with plenty of opposition, especially from those concerned about their impact on the environment.

However, KGHM Ajax’s project manager Chris Wild says environmental impact is an integral part of mine planning. 

“The whole environmental assessment process, the development of sustainability requirements has all been very positive for the industry,” Wild said. “It makes for better operations, and that’s perhaps what the public isn’t understanding, is that we really want these projects to be environmentally sensitive, to be sustainable.”

Those changes in operation are creating new jobs, for people with entirely different skill sets. 

“Mining has become such a high-tech industry these days, it’s not just shovel and truck,” Wild explained. “It’s computer systems, it’s managing complex milling problems, metallurgy, all kinds of environmental issues to address that are bringing in a lot of people who perhaps weren’t thinking about the mining industry as their original career, but now see things like environmental monitoring as a real career opportunity.” 

The KEG conference runs through Thursday. However, Wednesday will be the last chance for people to take in the trade show.