Retirement rate rising in mining industry.

How quickly can the fortunes in the mining industry shift?

Just a year-and-half ago, the Sudbury-based nickel giant Inco Ltd. was offering cash incentives for employees to retire early.

Now with a surge in exploration for platinum-group metals (PGM), combined with a jump in the company's retirement rate, the pendulum has swung the other way as hundreds of positions for surface operators, geologists, technical engineers, tradespeople, accountants and other administrative positions must be filled over the next few years.

"That's how quickly the situation has changed," says Berno Wenzl, Inco's superintendent of organization development who oversees recruiting and workforce planning.

"In the fall of 1999, if you were eligible to retire after 30 years, you'd get a $25,000 cash incentive to retire early."

About 300 to 400 people took advantage of the incentive.

The company's workforce demographics indicate that of Inco's 4,600 total employees in Ontario (4,400 in Sudbury and 200 in Port Colborne), roughly one-third of the workforce, about 1,500 employees, are eligible to retire over the next three years.

Hiring freezes through the 1980s and 1990s have left the company in the lunch with fewer employees in the 10 to 20 year mid-career range who are ready to step into senior and supervisory roles. The average age of an Inco employee is 46 years of age.

To deal with this shortfall the company has embarked on a process which includes reshuffling workers into new jobs, promoting through the ranks and bringing in entry-level people as needed, including hiring junior mining engineers right out of school.

To replenish their ranks, Inco hired or recalled about 300 people last year, and intends to hire 500 this year and about the same number next-year.

"We're struggling to fill roles," says Wenzl. "We're running out of qualified candidates, people who have mining experience or the common core in basic training, and we're having to go further afield in Northern Ontario and even as far as B.C."

Millwrights, heavy-equipment mechanics and electricians are in the greatest demand since these positions exist in other industrial sectors.

Wenzl says there is no shortage of interested applicants available since most Sudburians recognize employment in the mining industry as a well-paying job. But finding those with the right qualifications is an ongoing concern.

"It's a tight market that will only get tighter as more and more people retire," says Wenzl.

To keep a fresh infusion of young talent coming into the mining industry, Inco has shifted their electrical training labs to Sudbury's Cambrian College and has entered into a partnership with the college and other industry partners through the Skytech initiative, designed to advance new technology into the skilled trades fields.

John Hood, Cambrian's dean of technology, skills and research, says students are now flocking into the trades, buoyed by the success of their trades and technology graduates in finding immediate work.

The number of applications arriving for next falls heavy equipment mechanic, industrial electricians and millwright programs have more than doubled from last year.

"Mining's a-very high-tech industry now. The old days of the pick and shovel are long gone," Hood says.

At Placer Dome's Campbell gold mine in Balmerton near Red Lake, senior employees are treated as precious commodities in mentoring rookies Through the more physical and technical processes.

"These guys work smarter and they have a lot to contribute," says Brian Larson, the mine's human resources superintendent. "We have some pretty sophisticated hoisting and milling equipment here, and you don't learn that overnight."

"We cross-train everybody here, but there are some specialized jobs that some of our veterans have all the knowledge for."

Larsons says it's common for experienced miners to be placed in less strenuous positions, and new employees hired as needed for the more physical jobs.

The average age of Campbell's 350-person workforce is also 46 years, Larson says, but among the 40 or so employees eligible to retire today, probably only about five will choose to do so this year. -

When Ontario's sluggish mining sector rebounds and the baby boomers finally head off into retirement, more automated processes should fill the breech, he adds.

"Ten years down the road we're going to be fully mechanized. We're fairly labour intensive underground, but we're putting in a new ramping system to allow for bigger equipment. Down the road, we'll just let attrition take its course."

At the grassroots level, Garry Clark, chairman of the Ontario Prospectors Association, says age isn't an issue among his 700 members, many of whom are in their late 40s and early 50s.

But with the upswing in' the mineral exploration sector due to the ongoing search for PGMs and diamonds, he suspects some programs may be dragged out due to a shortage of prospectors, geologists, geophysics operators and general labour.

"This summer there's going to be some employment vacancies because there won't be enough skilled people," Clark says.

"We do a lot of physical labour when we're looking at mineral showings - be it blasting, rock sawing and even just washing off rocks - you need people that understand what they're doing."

The association is trying to raise the profile of the mineral and exploration profession by starting up prospecting courses in the northwest and looking at launching courses in other areas of Ontario.