Mine-finders, fund managers, accredited investors, mining company officers, prospectors, and investor relations officers will benefit from a two-day accredited course featuring Dr. David Groves on how to apply geology's lessons when evaluating junior mining companies and their properties.

Participants will spend seven weeks on the ground at a mining training camp located outside Smithers. They camp-based training program has seen 80 per cent of graduates successfully move on to jobs in the province’s mining sector. About three-quarters of the participants in these mining programs are Aboriginal.

The seminar will cover emergency planning, response strategies, business continuity, training and risk assessment. Some of the topics listed in the preliminary program are auditing and updating your plans, creating flexible plans, improving responses, minimizing loss, coaching and assessing performance, daily maintenance of your plans, risk management on the run, crisis-proofing, optimum mine site readiness, and many more.

At an offshore gas project, for example, a welder can pocket more than $300,000 a year, and some are seeking more than $400,000 in the next round of negotiations. On dry land, a worker who makes the beds or cleans at an isolated mining project can also expect a six-figure pay packet. As for the staff at McDonald's in the Pilbara's resources hub of Karratha, many of them are flown in and out by their employer because there aren't enough locals willing to do the job.

The hands-on experience and classroom instruction includes: drill core technician training and cultural resource assessment; prospector basic training; training as a mining exploration field assistant; and industry-related safety certification. WEST has seen 80-percent of its graduates move on to jobs. About three-quarters of program participants are Aboriginal.

"We’ve put a bit of time and money into setting this up," Barminco training co-coordinator Steve Motion said. "From an induction point of view, I think it will be a pretty good idea for putting what we call green people or new people through, just to give them that feeling of what it’s like to go underground and how an underground mine works."

"A key question asked was “what are the associations affiliated with mining in Canada doing to help these vacancies?” We were surprised that the editor was not aware of the comprehensive, integrated approach that has been ongoing for some years now, in which industry, government and key stakeholders are very much involved on many levels. Thus the question he posed is relatively easy to answer – unlike the complex issue of the mining skills shortage."

...hundreds of applicants from Washington and Greene counties can't be considered for employment as so-called "white-cap" entry-level miners, earning more than $22 per hour and full benefits, because they're coming up short on basic reading and math skills.

Created through a partnership between the school and the mid-tier gold miner, the program has provided an opportunity for those returning to the North in search of permanent full-time employment. “It is so gratifying to see those who are highly motivated and never had a chance of getting in...this is their big break,” said Rose-Lyne D'Aoust-Messier, training consultant of apprenticeship, workforce development and training at Northern College's Kirkland Lake campus.

HVTC chairman Milton Morris said the funding they received from Xstrata was always the “strawberry on the cake” for their programs.

“Not only does this money pay the wages of these young apprentices, but after we train them there is a place for them with one of Xstrata’s sub-contractors,” Mr Morris said.

As Premier Colin Barnett called for increased immigration, including guest workers, to deal with skills shortages in WA's north, a BIS Shrapnel senior analyst warned that competition with Queensland to man projects was so intense that WA could lose out to its fellow resources State.