I'm a Geotechnical/Geophysical/Senior Field technician, been in the industry for 20+ years mainly in Gold/Uranium exploration, plus iron ore mining sector. Currently out of work, have been so fo 5 months now as the industry is very depressed, especially in SA. The sector probably hasn't been this quiet for nearly 40 years, and some of the consultants I know that service the industry can attest to that. WA is the best place for mining/exploration jobs, but there is a high cost of living to go with it (compare housing prices).
Currently it is hard to get into the sector without having good contacts on the inside, and having previous experience, nearly all jobs, particularly heavy machinery require at least two years onsite experience, and often that is limited to experience on specific pieces of equipment. The big miners are offering no training for newcomers, preferring to employ experienced operators from employment agencies, or from within their own ranks.
The "mining boom" was a farce, it simply consisted of our two biggest miners, BHP and Rio Tinto, meanwhile most smaller companies and exploration juniors have been doing it hard, pretty much since mid 2000. There is currently little or no investment into the sector at present, hence the lack of vacancies, and job shedding, even from the largest of the miners.
I must also mention that there are some pretty dodgy and greedy boards and directors out there sitting on investors money, pulling a salary, and doing no active work to find an actual deposit, they'd rather play "value adding" games playing the market to line their own pockets rather than do proper exploration.
I remember during the "boom", many eastern states people came to WA in search of employment, with visions of earning $100000 plus a year, only to find - no experience, no job. Even people who had completed $3000 dump truck training and accreditation could not find a job due to the same reason.
The Fed Govt needs to get off its arse and encourage investment (offer tax incentives for investors as recommended by the Gonski review), training (subsidised?)etc, rather than sponging off the bigger miners.
Otherwise come 5-10 years down the track, there will be no new mines and even worse unemployment/lack of revenue.
Anyway, thats just the current industry from my point of view.
