Canada's mining industry will have to address a serious skills shortage if it wants to keep its position as one of the world's largest exporter of minerals, metals and diamonds. A recentlyreleased two-year study has found that the industry will not only need up to 81,000 new workers but also predicted that nearly 40 percent of the mining workforce will retire in the next decade.

Paul Hébert, executive director of the Mining Industry Training and Adjustment Council of Canada (MITAC), the organization that conducted the study, said 81,000 represents "100 percent of today's workforce" and emphasized that there are positions within the industry for every kind of skilled tradesperson and professional, including lawyers, healthcare workers and accountants. Hébert explained that modern mining is more about robotics and leading edge technology, less about pick axes and shovels, and is "among the highest paying of all industrial sectors in Canada."

Part of the solution to the looming problem, Hébert believes, is to hold onto older workers with more than 20 years experience who are ready to retire. The largest percentage of workers planning to retire within the next ten years is in the skilled trades group. Most have, on average, 21 years of mining sector experience.

He suggested that companies retain these workers for one or two years, either fulltime or part-time, and give them more flexible work hours. Otherwise, Hébert said, the industry will suffer "a huge loss of intellectual capital."