Modern Mining November 2022

CONSULTING ENGINEERING

reduce their fee levels drastically and, in some cases, to below a recommended rate for sustainability. Campbell notes that clients’ aggressive push for discounts has resulted in a highly constrained environment that is hampering the industry’s abil ity to invest in the training of young engineering graduates. “The unintended consequences of the low income levels means consulting engineers are unable to absorb young graduates. In this country, there is a belief that when a graduate obtains an engineering degree, she or he is suddenly capable of undertaking the entire workload of an experienced consultant, which is a misconception. Engineering is an applied science and the graduate needs to spend time converting it to a level of competency. After the graduate has undertaken an extensive and wide variety of work and is deemed competent, only then is the consulting company able to charge for the work undertaken. As it stands, a significant por tion of consulting engineering companies are unable to absorb this kind of cost with the result that there is a large pool of unemployed graduates, many of whom are leaving the country as they are unable to find employment and/or secure the experience they require,” explains Campbell. Thirdly, owing to poor succession planning, few young engineers are keen to pursue areas of min ing specialisation, with the result that the mining industry’s requirement for a profile of specialist knowledge and experience in aspects such as rock engineering, has led to a vast number of specialists working beyond normal retirement age. Further to this, with mining operations often located in deep rural towns, specialists are required to work away from home for months at a time, a factor that young graduates frequently regard as unfavourable. A further challenge, often encountered by con sulting engineers offering their services to the mining sector, is the stringent health and safety require ments imposed by mining houses which necessitate

Mpumalanga and Limpopo, and extend to KwaZulu Natal and the Free State. On the back of renewable energy project developments in the Northern Cape and related areas, there is need for transmission capabilities that feed from the south up into the north as well as to the west and east. Eskom estimates the need for over 8 000 km of transmission capacity which has to be installed by 2026 if we hope to see the back of loadshedding.” Traversing the mine-field of challenges Key among the multitude of challenges facing the consulting engineering sector, is the critical shortage of skilled personnel, particularly those with mining related knowledge and experience. “Even if a consulting engineer is knowledgeable about infrastructure developments, mining related infrastructure development is a different kettle of fish entirely, requiring a vast set of mining related knowledge and experience. Although CESA has over 600 member companies, very few have mining specialisation. In fact, less than ten percent of our membership base has mining related experience.” Secondly, the push for bottom dollar rates but top dollar services has forced consulting engineers to

Greenfield and exploration projects are being hampered by the prescripts of the Mining Charter.

There is rise in demand for new age minerals such as battery metals and related commodities including lithium, vanadium and copper.

32  MODERN MINING  November 2022