Digging For Workers The Average Mine Employee Is 45 Years Old, Leaving Many In The Industry Wondering Where The Next Generation Of Labor Will Come From

Brian Buckham’s family roots sink into the Silver Valley like a mine shaft.

A great-grandfather was a miner in Burke, Idaho. Paternal and maternal grandfathers were engineers and electricians for Hecla Mining Co.

So family gatherings naturally included stories about relatives who worked in the mines. (One grew a lemon tree in a mine shaft.) And when Buckham pulled volumes off his dad’s bookshelf, he found histories of silver mining in the Coeur d’Alene District.

Buckham, 19, a University of Idaho student, counts himself lucky to come from such a family.

The UI sophomore is pursuing a mining engineering degree, and he’s already spent two summers working at the Lucky Friday Mine in Mullan, Idaho.

Work sites 6,000 feet underground don’t bother him. “Sometimes, I can actually think clearer when I’m down there,” he said.

But without close family ties to the Silver Valley, Buckham says he probably wouldn’t have thought of pursuing a mining career. His aptitude for math and physics would have taken an entirely different path.

Buckham is part of an elite group. Just 140 students graduate each year with mining engineering degrees from U.S. colleges and universities.

“That’s a small number of people for a multi-million business,” notes Earl Bennett, dean at UI’s College of Mines and Earth Resources.

It’s also cause for concern in the industry.

The average mining worker is 45 years old, with 20 or more years of experience, according to the National Mining Association. Many will retire in the next 10-15 years. And industry officials worry about continuing to recruit good people - particularly engineers and geologists - to the field.

“It’s something we’re all concerned about,” said Jim Duff, president of the Northwest Mining Association.

When Duff looks out over the crowd at the association’s annual meeting - an event that draws 3,000 mining officials to Spokane each December - he sees mostly gray hair.

“In Australia, when you go to conventions, the character is much different,” he said. “Most of the delegates are young.”

U.S. employment in the metals mining industry is about half of what it was during the late 1970s and early 1980s, according to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Idaho’s Silver Valley has experienced similar declines in mining jobs.

The downsizing is due to a variety of factors, officials say.

Jobs are moving overseas due to rich strikes in other countries and tightening U.S. environmental regulations. Advances in technology allow greater mineral extraction with fewer workers. Depressed metals prices have also played a role.

The job reductions mean that few new workers have entered the mining industry, said Joe Nypaver.

“Ten years down the road, roughly 50-70 percent of the work force will turn over,” said Nypaver, who works for CONSOL, a Pittsburgh coal company that tracks the number of mining engineers graduating from U.S. universities.

“The need for good, bright people coming out of school isn’t going to diminish,” said Connie Holmes, the National Mining Association’s senior vice president for policy.

One of Duff’s goals as Northwest Mining Association president is to develop programs to acquaint more high school students with careers in mining. But there are challenges, he added.

“I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the career I had to anyone,” said Duff, a 30-year industry veteran who’s currently vice president of business development at Coeur d’Alene Mines.

However, the metals industry has changed since he was a new graduate. With metal prices at 20-year lows, entry-level jobs are tight.

Keith Warren knows that first-hand.

Warren graduated from UI last year with a geology degree. Like Buckham, the Kellogg resident had family ties to mining. And he hoped to turn his passion for rocks into a profession.

Underground mines “are actually one of the few places you can actually see rock in its natural state, before it gets weathered and oxidized,” the 26-year-old said.

Warren worked five months for the Sunshine Mine in Kellogg, but hasn’t been able to land permanent work.

With rejection letters still arriving from job inquiries he made in the fall, Warren looked elsewhere for work. He’s currently a locksmith apprentice, though he hopes to someday use his geology degree.

Globalization is another trend affecting graduates entering the field, officials said. Most can expect to spend part of their career overseas.

“It’s very, very difficult to open or expand a mine here. … Overseas, governments are often much more friendly toward development,” Holmes said.

But, “Most young people would rather work in an urban environment” than the remote areas where mines are often located, Duff said.

Duff, a geologist, spent five years in South America after the Bunker Hill Mine shut down in 1981. He and his family enjoyed their 2-1/2-year stint in Santiago, Chile, a cosmopolitan city of 4 million.

But their time at a remote mine in Argentina was difficult on his wife and three children.

Duff was chief geologist at a lead, zinc and silver mine, located at an elevation of 15,000 feet. There were few other English-speaking families in the community of 10,000. The closest phone was a four-hour drive. “I can appreciate how someone who is 19 years old wouldn’t find it very appealing,” Duff said. “Unfortunately, mines are where you find them.”

Enrollment at UI’s College of Mines has shown a modest growth over the past several years. Associate Dean Bob Hautala said his students find jobs if they’re willing to be flexible. More are going to work for industrial minerals companies these days - a trend that’s also true at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden.

Aging infrastructure and population expansion are fueling a need for sand, gravel and cement, said Matt Hrebar, associate professor at Colorado School of Mines.

“Every Californian’s putting a log house on a hillside in Wyoming, and each of those houses needs a gravel road,” Hrebar said.

Buckham hopes to work in the metals industry, though he’s open to other possibilities.

He’s specializing in underground mining, an area that fascinates him.“It’s all forms of engineering wrapped into one,” Buckham said.

Engineers who work in underground mines need skills in civil, mechanical and ventilation engineering. And there’s the challenge of working far below the Earth’s surface.

“You’re following a vein behind rocks,” Buckham said.

2 Graphics: 1. Metal mining jobs going downhill 2. Metal miners in the Silver Valley