Webinar GeoHUG; Richard Lilly laments the future for OZ geoscientists.

On the 16th October 2020, the GeoHUG webinar#23 allowed Richard Lilly of NExUS to speak casually with John McIntyre and others about the gloomy future of geoscientists in Australia. There was little structure to the conversation, that allowed for a fee flowing wide range of frank opinions to be expressed. Italics are my thoughts not expressed during the webinar.

Some points included;

·       There simply aren’t the high school teachers out there to teach earth science, and so open the doors to Australia’s bright youth to enter the geoscience world of geology, mining, metallurgy etc. The wages for high school teachers or university lecturers are about half of what can be earnt from working with exploration & mining companies.  Advancement through the university academia is keyed into producing technical papers, wherein a 10-year experienced geologist returning to teach at Uni will never catch up on producing papers for advancement in the academia world. Perhaps there could be a greater drive to recruit retired industry professionals into teaching?

·       Geoscience university education rarely makes graduates fit for work, or writing reports. The industry rush to get posts filled often means less mentoring on site – and top geologists etc are pulled back into the office for desk work. The local regulations often exclude young graduates from learning by doing basic site operational jobs – such as core catching etc.

·       Universities are watering down their basic science content, and replacing with softer sciences that offer entry level environmental science etc. Perhaps Universities should follow the medial doctor program of basic science for first 2 years, followed by specialization in 3rd year etc.

·       The numbers of students in UQ & Adelaide universities is between 15-35 at entry level that drops to 4-20 graduates. The Australian industry needs hundreds of graduates each year. This means the industry must “import” such skilled professionals.

·       The working geologist time is increasingly taken up by administrative paper work (budgets, HR, Risk assessment etc). The geologist needs to be supported by a team to fulfil the administrative tasks – In Australia manpower is expensive, but in Asia this is easier to support. If mines can work remotely from a city office, then support for geologist can also be “off-site”.

·       Passion for geology is still the greatest driving motivation. Today many millennials avoid outdoor & manual work. This passion needs to be ignited in high school, with engaging teachers, field excursions and countering the negativity often associated with resource development. We need to approach the lobby angle, not with facts and figures, but to win the emotional position. Perhaps this could start with ticktok and some high-profile personality.

·       There is a challenge wherein experienced “rough necks” of the geological world are retiring, and their broad knowledge is in risk of being not passed on to the next generation of Geologists.

·       The group think / consensus style of management, or big boss approach needs to be challenged to allow the best ideas to be expressed and adopted, to allow innovation and creativity to lead to success.

·       Predictions about the coming demand for Copper are typical of the challenges facing the geologist – that need to find immense reserves in time for mines to be developed in a responsible manner (can take 10 years). There is only about 1-month supply of global stocks of copper metal.  Politicians and Administrators need to understand the supply chain and other influences on the exploration & mining industry, in order to meet global demands for metals & energy.