Western Australian miners seek Indigenous talent to fill skills shortage

Western Australian miners are increasingly turning to Indigenous employment and procurement to help plug the ever-present skills gap, but it has not been without challenges.

A skills shortage continues unabated as demand rises for metals to feed the world's energy transition. So miners in Western Australia, the world's biggest iron ore and lithium producing jurisdiction, are ramping up efforts to train and employ Indigenous people and engage Aboriginal-owned businesses.

The push comes as miners and the state government grapple with how to protect Aboriginal cultural heritage in the wake of Rio Tinto Group's 2020 destruction of the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge sacred site.

"There has been a big shift as investors want these [mining] companies to be real about their protection of the environment, their engagement socially and the way they govern their organization," Rowena Leslie, chair of Goldfields Aboriginal Business Chamber (GABC), told S&P Global Commodity Insights.

"Our mines have shifted — things are aligning with our values, what we want to see in our community and what the mining companies are trying to achieve. People are more willing to hear Aboriginal people's opinions," Leslie said.

While Aboriginal procurement and recruitment has been well established in Western Australia's Pilbara region, other regions in the state, such as Goldfields, are seeing a surge in partnerships between miners and Aboriginal contractors as large investments pour into mining and downstream processing.

"In the last year or two there has been an increase in investment in the capability building of Aboriginal businesses, and engagement with Aboriginal businesses in mining," said Leslie, also a director at Aboriginal-owned civil construction and mining services firm Kai Rho Contracting.

GABC partnered with Northern Star Resources Ltd. and BHP Nickel West Pty. Ltd. in April to support Aboriginal businesses across the Goldfields region. Northern Star has committed to spending at least A$20 million per year on Indigenous businesses by July 2024, while BHP Nickel West pledged to raise its Indigenous procurement target every year.

Appetite increasing

The appetite for engaging Indigenous businesses and increasing Aboriginal training and employment opportunities is "absolutely increasing across the sector, as is the competence" of Aboriginal businesses, Northern Star CEO Stuart Tonkin told Commodity Insights.

The key is to "start with smaller businesses, build them and [work] with them over the long-term," Tonkin said.

First Nation Engineering Pty. Ltd. — a joint venture formed in August 2022 between First Nation mining, civil, construction and training company Carey Group Holdings Pty. Ltd. and CPC Engineering Pty. Ltd. — booked its first contract Aug. 7 to provide engineering design and procurement services for bore fields expansions at Northern Star's Thunderbox, Carosue Dam and KCGM gold operations.

Carey Group is unique for its 28-year experience working with large players like AngloGold Ashanti Ltd., Tonkin said.

The group is involved with the Australian Aboriginal Mining Academy and works with Western Australia's Department of Justice to reduce the rate of recidivism by training people released from prison to get a job in the mining industry, Carey Group CEO Moses Panashe told Commodity Insights.

"It's about looking for any opportunity that we can to get people employed, even if it's a second- or third-hand opportunity," Panashe said. "For example, we've got a project contract and we give the opportunity to a small subcontractor Aboriginal business who is more likely to engage Aboriginal people and put them on traineeships."

Recruiting challenges

Training Aboriginal talent has been a challenge as their communities "comprise just 3.8% of the population, they're living in remote communities [and] there may be literacy and learning issues we need to overcome," Panashe said.

"In the Indigenous space there is a growing number of engineers, but it's quite small in comparison to the rest of the professional disciplines," the Carey Group CEO said. "So we need to go the extra mile to actually find the people.

"In a skills crisis, finding and appointing people that can work and are able and willing, can be trained and given opportunities, they should all be taken up and contributing to the industry," Panashe said.

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