Trent
Industry is in a state of flux, and companies are struggling to figure out how to navigate the future of mining and energy production.
“Challenges of Change” was the theme for this year’s Coal and Energy forum, which explored how industry challenges within the renewable energy, Liquefied Natural Gas and metallurgical coal mining sectors are creating new career and workforce development opportunities, along with potential pitfalls.
“Our objective is to encourage education and training institutions to keep up with the rapidly changing needs of industry and to keep their education and training courses relevant to the realities, needs and emerging opportunities within the sector,” says Tumbler Ridge Economic Development Officer John Powell, who helped organize this year’s event, which was attended by industry leaders, politicians, First Nations, contractors, educators, graduates and students to network, share ideas and discuss the varied, and sometimes hidden career opportunities to be had in the energy and resource sectors.
The conference was held across two days: September 11 and 12. The first day attendees were given an opportunity to explore the Tumbler Ridge area or tour either Conuma Coal’s Wolverine metallurgical coal mine or the Meikle Wind Project.
Day two saw speakers from around the industry speak to issues such as Canada’s Digital Technology Supercluster and how it’s opening up new opportunities for coal mining to the future of education for young people coming into mining.
Coal mining was a $6.31 billion industry for BC in 2018—comprising 58 percent of the mining revenue for the province. It provided 5000 direct jobs and about 10,000 indirect jobs. There are eight mines in operation in the province—four in southeast BC, three in the northeast and one on Vancouver Island. In addition, exploration over the last couple of years has increased, with 18 new projects in development, some in the Northeast, some in the Northwest, and some in areas that have seen little or no coal development before, like the Groundhog and Telkwa projects, both metallurgical coal projects located in Northwestern BC.
The main consumer of Canadian coal is Asia, with Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan making up over 80 percent of Canada’s exports. Since 2000, global demand has nearly doubled, from 850 million tonnes of metallurgical coal used to 1.63 Billion tonnes last year.
But nearly every day, there is new technology that is coming online that are challenging traditional ways of doing things, while providing new opportunities.
Some of these changes will directly impact how business is done. Autonomous mining vehicles are already in use in places like Suncor’s oilsand mines near Fort McMurray. Reise O’Hara, Director of Government relations at the Coal Association of Canada says that, while they may not be feasible in the mountainous terrain of BC, that is quickly changing. O’Hara points to reports that say automation in mining could increase by 50 percent in just the next four years. “Mines are using automated vehicles to increase production efficiencies, safety, environmental leadership and reduce cost.”
Another technology changing the face of mining is Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones, which are used to create 3D maps of a mine site. This information is then used calculate volumes, perform site surveys, optimize traffic management, design road layouts and more.
“You’ve seen someone using a drone in their driveway,” says O’Hara. “On site, they can fly over to create a map and they can do exploration in remote locations.”
Finally, says O’Hara, getting the product to market is becoming safer, as, in the last year, CN has started to roll out Automated Inspection Portals.
It currently takes employees about two minutes to inspect each rail car. In a train of 100 or more cars, that time can add up.
Starting last year, CN has begun building a series of Rail Inspection Portals, currently around Winnipeg. These portals incorporate high speed cameras and thermal imaging and uses AI to inspect rail cars passing at speeds up to 110 kph. The cameras basically take a series of thin, very tall “slice” photos that are stitched together by the system’s software into a complete picture of a rail car. The portals use LED lights to illuminate passing trains, and can identify when, say doors are open or missing. The thermal imaging can detect hot-spots, revealing when brakes are rubbing or other problems.
The portal reads the Automatic Equipment Identification tag on every rail car so it can match the image to a particular car, and identify problems before they get to the yard.
The company is predicting the new system will save them up to $400-million over the next four years, with each portal costing about $4-million to build. They are hoping to have ten portals built by 2021, though the location of these portals has yet to be announced.
One of the biggest concerns, says O’Hara, is that young people are not being attracted to careers in coal; indeed, some are being actively discouraged from the field. “When I tell people I work in coal; people say I thought coal was dead, or on its last legs,” he says. “Or that they are physically demanding and labour intensive jobs. Yes, those jobs exist, but that’s only a small part. You have mining operations control, geology, lab, drone operation, haul truck simulator…”
O’Hara says that over the next decade, the number of people retiring from coal mining will increase. “Each person who retires takes an average of 37 years of experience with them. So it’s not just the worker, but the experience and knowledge that is being lost.”
There are problems facing the industry. “We need a substantial investment to get a mine up and running because of regulatory process, logistics and community,” he says. “And if there are no mines, there are no jobs. And there are fewer mining engineers graduating. Education hasn’t kept up. The industry is perceived as on its last legs. Why get an education for a career that won’t last?”
But with challenges come opportunities. Skilled workers employed by the mining sector make significantly higher wages than those employed in other sectors, he says. And it’s expected that the mining industry will need about 100,000 new workers over the next decade to support all types of mining. Looking at job postings, he says that 77 percent require at least a bachelor’s degree. “Mining is a high-tech industry.”
Other topics included education and industry, the current state of LNG, Green Energy and Clean Energy, and an update on the BC Mining Jobs task force by Mayor Keith Bertrand.
