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MINERALS INDUSTRY EDUCATION AND TRAINING II

The classic mineral processing and metallurgy curricula with core mineral
processing or metallurgy making up around 50% of content is seen in
Universities in India, Canada, China and South America. These programs
also tend to be strong in other mining-related content. Students in these
programs often share classes with other students preparing for careers in
the minerals industry, like geologists and mining engineers.

A second group could be described as chemical or process engineering
programs, designed to equip graduates to work with a range of industrial
technologies. These programs have little or no focus on broader aspects
of the mining industry, but are often popular with employers because they
build a solid foundation in general engineering and process technology.
Universities reviewed from South Africa, Europe and Australia tended to
have a strong focus on process engineering, with up to 25% of program
content falling into this category, compared to 12 – 15% in other programs.
These tend to be quite weak in core mineral processing content.

There is anecdotal evidence (Drinkwater 2011) to suggest that in some of
these countries it is common to employ Chemical Engineers graduating
with little or no mineral processing content in undergraduate degrees
to work in mineral processing plants. However, these countries also
have programs strong in mineral processing and materials engineering,
and it is not uncommon for employers in these regions to deliberately
employ a recruitment strategy drawing from a mix of feeder courses,
taking advantage of the situation to achieve a broad skill-set within their
professional teams.
A third group of programs has a strong focus on materials engineering,
and many are derivatives of the traditional “physical metallurgy” programs.
Some of these programs are strongly focussed on the mining industry;
others focus more on manufacturing. Examples of universities whose
programs have a strong materials engineering focus include Finland and
the USA, though there are many others.

Mineral Processing Education
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