You are currently browsing the daily archive for January 31, 2007.
The unsung heros of mining are those who work quarries and gravel pits. We focus on metal mining because of the glamor and precious things they bring us: gold, silver, platinum all grace our weddings and that horde of precious things we bequeath our offspring. But we survive and live by virtue of the quarry and gravel pit operator.
Think again if you think your job is safe. Do not believe all the university tells you about your skills being in short supply. At least this is potentially true if you are an engineer in Canada, the United States, and maybe most of South America. My advice is make sure that whatever you do on the mine or for the mine, can only be done by walking around the site or requires you to be a registered professional in the jurisdiction of the mine. Any job that can be done remotely, probably can be done by an outsourcee. Let me explain.
Mines as instuments of social policy and vote buying? Seems this was the case for many years in Germany. Speigel Online reports that the last eight coal mines in Germany are finally to be closed. Apparently imported coal cost €60 a ton, whereas it costs €200 a ton to produce coal from a German coal mine.
