Some Thoughts on Educating Professionals for Mining Industry
Si-qing Liu, Shu-ming Wen1, Dian-wen Liu, Xiong Tong, Zuo-yue Lan
Department of Mineral Processing Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China
(1Corresponding author: sam647@163.com)
Abstract - With the fast development of economy, the
mining industry in China has become seriously concerned
about the future supply of its professionals in mineral
processing and allied disciplines. Educating mining
professionals become the more and more important thing.
This paper outlines the mining education background in the
Kunming University of Science and Technology (KUST).
This paper then summaries the current situation of
educating the mining professionals in the university, which
shows that the professionals shall be trained by multiple
ways. At the same time, some new thoughts on educating the
mining professionals in KUST are put forward.
Keywords - Mining industry, professional, engineering education
I.
INTRODUCTION
With the recovery of global economy and the fast
development of Chinese economy, the mining industry
enters to a blooming period. According to the report, the
need for minerals and energy in the coming 10 years will
be surely gets increased, as the per capita GDP reaches
over 1000 USD [1-3]. Generally, a few students from the
remote countryside with low-income families tend to
choose such subjects as mining and metallurgy to study,
due to the low tuition fee, which are about one-fifth of
those for normal subjects. However, the contradiction
between the minerals industry’s demand and the supply of
its professionals is obvious. On the other hand, mining
industry is facing with the problems to mine and process
the ore characterized by low grade, finely dissemination
and high impurities, which challenges the mining
practitioner at present and in the future. In order to realize
the sustainable development for mining industry, the
supply of talents that grasping relevant knowledge in
other discipline becomes more and more important [4][5].
II. MINING EDUCATION IN KUST
Kunming University of Science and Technology is
located in the beautiful “Spring City” of China, which is
the largest university in Yunnan province and one of the
well-known universities in China. With the current 21
faculties (schools), covering the fields ranging from
science, engineering and economics to management, arts,
law and education, KUST offers a complete list of degree
programs.
KUST recruits students from all over China,
including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. In addition,
KUST is authorized to recruit international students for
degree programs ranging from bachelor to master and Ph.
D. There are over 40,000 students currently studying at
KUST, and among them over 3,000 are graduate students.
KUST presently offers 67 bachelor programs, 74 master
programs and 24 Ph.D. programs. There are four state
authorized post-doctoral stations, a state-level key
academic subject and 18 provincial level key academic
subjects.
Mineral processing engineering department was early
originated in the former Dept. of Mining and
Metallurgical Engineering, Donglu University in 1925
(present Yunnan University). Mineral processing dept.
was authorized to recruit the postgraduates and PhD
students in 1965 and 1986 respectively, by the National
Education Commission. In 1998, the mining discipline
got the authority to launch the Center for Post-Doctoral
student; and in 2009 ，it was listed as a distinguished
discipline to be constructed by the State Ministry of
Education.
Through several-decades development, the department
has become a comprehensive discipline covering all
aspects of mineral processing, and involving in
environment and extractive metallurgy disciplines. Each
year, the department recruits 60 undergraduates, 35
graduates and 10 PhD students. Currently, it has become
the only one and important professionals training base in
western China at full levels from undergraduate to
postdoctoral fellows in mineral processing. It enjoys a
good reputation both at home and aboard.
III. CURRENT SITUATION IN EDUCATING MINING
PROFESSIONALS
A. Professional shortage
Given an example for the coal industry in China，
about 96%, 90%, 88% and 80% of the enterprises are in
short of electrical and mechanical engineers, ventilation
and safety engineers, mining engineers and manager,
respectively. This situation seems to be better in metallic,
nonmetallic and oil exploration industries. Yunnan
province is called as a “Kingdom of Nonferrous Metals”,
but the education background of mining practitioners is
not promising, only 10% mining practitioners have the
bachelor degree. According to the statistics from China
University of Mining and Technology, number of total
undergraduate were 3,696 persons, among which 440
persons served for coal industry only, accounting for
11.9% in 2002. By the year of 2011, the number increased
to 4,587 persons [6]. Many universities expand their
enrollment scale to meet the unceasing need. Some
unknown universities begin to recruit mining students to
occupy the talent market. However, mining enterprises are
mostly located in remote areas under poor working and
living conditions with bad salary, so the graduates are not
willing to stay in the remote areas for a long time. On the
other hand, most of the enterprises cannot cultivate
professionals by themselves. Furthermore, the rapid
mining development demands more mining professionals.
Therefore, it is necessary to adopt a feasible strategy to
balance the contradictions between talents supply and
demand.
B. Professional demand at different levels
In a view of enterprise, the need of professionals can
be divided into three types, i.e., upper management,
middle skeleton, and labor force. The current situation is
that labor force is easy to get, but the upper and middle
are different. At present, the labor forces in the stateowned mining enterprises mainly consist of the fixed
employee and the casual laborer. However, the employee
in private enterprises is mainly the seasonal workers. Due
to most of the mines and concentrators are not wellequipped by automation, the quality requirement on labor
forces seems to be low. In this case, short-term training is
effective, and the labor force is not the key problem in
mining industry.
Currently, the serious situation is short of talents at
upper and middle levels. The situation is more serious for
the demand of middle skeleton in management because
the education background would better be technician
college degree or above. Since those talents have
relatively strong professional knowledge and executive
ability, they often shift their working sites from remote
place to crowded towns or cities, from state-owned
enterprises to private ones for a higher salary [7].
Limited by working location and different
management system in the state-owned and private
enterprises, the high quality talents are not willing to work
in the remote areas. With the retirement of the old
generation, the supply of upper manager becomes serious
in the state-owned enterprises; as for the private
enterprises, most of the upper managers have poor
education background, and they are lack of practical
experience and professional knowledge. Therefore, it is
necessary to upgrade the upper leaders’ idea and quality.
IV. DISCUSSION
A. General thoughts on educating minerals professional
The main objectives of educating mining
professionals cover following aspects, i.e., well-developed
in morality, intelligence, physique and art; broad and deep
foundations; strong ability in engineering practice;
innovative consciousness and capacity. The graduate shall
be able to engage in production, management, engineering
design, scientific research etc. Professional requirements
for engineering students mainly include three aspects [811]
:
1) Knowledge: It is necessary to know well in
fundamental knowledge on theory and engineering, and to
comprehend the state-of-art technology in engineering.
2) Ability: Ability training includes applying basic
theory and professional knowledge to: analyze and settle
the existing engineering problem; conduct technological
innovation in new process and technique; organize
production and analyze the techno-economic index.
3) Engineering Skills: Basic engineering skill a
requirement includes: the experimental skills, engineering
practice, computer application, scientific research and
engineering design; understanding the policy, laws and
regulations on mining industry, safety production and
environmental protection.
B. A case study in educating minerals professionals
1) Course reviewed in educating mineral processors
in KUST
Department of Minerals Engineering in KUST has
formed its characteristic in offering following courses,
and each course corresponds to a certain credit
points. Four year Bachelor degrees generally require the
completion of 240 credit points. Double degrees may
require additional credit points.
Common training courses for university of science
and technology in China include basic courses, practice
connections, and quality and innovative education.
Basic courses mainly include the political and
theoretical subjects, college English, college physics and
chemistry, higher mathematics, computer foundation, Cprogramming language, physical education, etc.
Practice connection courses mainly include the higher
mathematics, experiments on physics and chemistry,
computer application practice, engineering practice, etc.
Quality and innovative education courses refer to the
courses in Management Introduction, Economics,
Information Retrieval, Military Theory and Training,
Career Development, etc[12][13].
Professional foundation and specialized courses on
mineral processing can be divided into two categories,
i.e., compulsory and selective courses.
Professional foundation covers Engineering Drawing,
Auto CAD, Organic and Inorganic Chemistry, Physical
Chemistry, etc. Selective courses include Engineering
Mechanics, Technological Economics, Surface Chemistry
of Flotation, and the mining industry chain courses
covering mining, metallurgy, and environment
engineering.
Main specialized courses offered in mineral
processing engineering in KUST are (1) Comminution;
(2) Gravity Concentration; (3) Magnetic and Electric
Separation; (4) Flotation; (5) Ore Beneficiation
Experiments; (6)Mineral Processing Plant Design;
(7)Mineral Processing Technology (English version, B.A.
Wills, 7th edition). The former four courses are mainly
focused on the training of basic skills in conventional
mineral processing; Ore Beneficiation Experiments
focuses on the training of basic skills and innovative
ability, in which students can learn to process some
specific ores by different separation methods, and design
the test procedure by themselves; plant design course
focuses on the training of engineering abilities in research
and design through field trip connection to different
concentrators. The said department in KUST also offers
the Mineral Processing Technology (original latest
English edition) course to improve students’ English
language skills in reading and writing. The main purpose
is to train students to be international professionals.
2) Compulsory course and its reform in KUST
With the blooming in mining industry, mineral
processing engineering discipline has become a combined
subject of environmental and hydrometallurgical
engineering. It is necessary to build such a system in
educating the mineral processors with wide scope of
knowledge, strong ability in practical skills like research,
engineering design and management. However, there is
disharmony to great extent in educating the minerals
professionals. First, most of the domestic universities that
run mineral professional business lack of a platform for
undergraduates and graduates, where students practical
skills and engineering quality cannot be trained
effectively; second, traditional professional courses are
disjointed with engineering; third, laboratory equipment is
of manual operation lacking of a platform to demonstrate
some modern technique in mineral processing industry.
Besides, limited by long lasting shortage in financial
support as well as laboratory rooms, most of universities
cannot meet the requirement of internal intension and
extensional development, which makes students have
difficulty in taking in the abstract knowledge. Therefore,
it is difficult to realize the connection between theory and
existing engineering or technical questions. The course
(e.g. Ore Beneficiation Research) teaching cannot
effectively connect with pilot tests, not to mention the
promotion and application of scientific and technological
achievements for minerals industry.
In recent 5 years, the department in KUST conducted
a compulsory course reform.
Compulsory courses mainly include Chemical
Treatment, Flotation Chemistry, Solid-Liquid Separation,
Technological Economics and others. Others refer to the
courses extended to in mining and metallurgical industry,
including introduction to mining and metallurgy,
computer application in mineral processing industry, and
advances in mineral processing engineering. The main
purposes are to extend the students’ knowledge in the
chain of mining (upstream) and metallurgy (downstream)
industry.
Some compulsory courses are specially designed for
the four year Bachelor degrees in the forth year, which
aims to develop the students’ career in obtaining
employment. Three packages are available as follows:
A) Package One for environment engineering:
Environmental Protection; Solid Waste Treatment and
Disposal; Secondary Resource Utilization.
B) Package Two for automation and computer
application: Control Theory and Automation; Industrial
PLC; Mineral Processing Testing Instrument and
Principle.
c) Package three for minerals material: Comminution
Engineering; Non-metallic Material; Magnetic Material
Through above courses reform, the graduate’s career
get developed and extended, the graduate can easily find
jobs in mineral processing and related discipline.
C. Education knowledge in multiple ways
The mining talents education and training system
includes three levels, i.e., primary, secondary and tertiary
levels in depth and width. In depth, the relationship of
education and training is just as that of “Learning” and
“Practice”. “Learning” refers to educating knowledge and
thoughts for students in the colleges and universities.
However, “Practice” is mainly focused on the onsite
mining practitioner, which covers the cultivation on skills
and abilities through teaching and self-training process.
Educating mining talents includes three levels, i.e.,
base, middle and upper levels. Educating base level refers
to impart information, basic theory and knowledge, and to
cultivate the basic skills. Students in technical secondary
school, technical school, and vocational school can
acquire above skills. The main purpose to educate the
base level professionals is to supply employee for
operators for mining industry.
Educating mining students at meddle level refers to
impart knowledge for students and let students know
mining techniques, management, and scientific research,
etc. Students in colleges and universities can acquire
above skills. The main purpose at this level is to train
students to be chief engineers or general managers for the
mining industry. The key points lies in awakening the
wisdom to form an active thinking system. In this way,
students’ research and percipient abilities can be trained.
Educating mining talent at high level is mainly
focused on training the percipient abilities, and let the
undergraduates and postgraduates grasp the research
methods and advances in development. The main purpose
at this level is to train students to be chief engineering,
scientists, and general managers.
At present, KUST has formed a complete system in
educating above talents at different levels. But the supply
of the talent cannot meet the need of blooming mining
industry. Therefore, self-training talents by enterprises
become important.
Australian educators have been early adopters of
information and communication technologies (ICT) for
teaching and learning purposes [14]. Based on the fact that
the mining scale of China lists the third in the world, and
China has the largest exploration teams, with more than 2l
million employees, there is a great need for formal
university training and continuing education of
professionals, Considering the different areas with
different levels of economic development, and the
imbalance of science and technology in China, top
priority should be given to upgrade the skills of those
already employed at mine-sites. This could be achieved
by using the Hi-tech education approach-distance
education and/or on-line teaching [15].
In recent ten years, mineral processing engineering
discipline was supported by JPY and Germany loans, the
joint financial support from Yunnan and the central
government, etc. to meet the rapid development in mining
industry. The finance was used to update and make up
some equipment and instrument for teaching. At the same
time, teachers in the department have developed some
new equipment by themselves, such as suspension
electrostatic separator, vibrating tower separator, selfcirculation grinding mill, ultra-critical rotation speed ball
mill, to meet the extended need of teaching and scientific
research activities.
Currently, the said department owns four laboratories
for mineral processing fundamental research, 33
laboratory rooms for teaching professionals, and one
mineral resource high-efficient utilization center affiliated
to the Ministry of Education China. The department has
formed four academic groups in following aspects: new
equipment development and fundamental research;
selective grinding theory and applied research; low grade
complex ore beneficiation; precious metals processing
and extractive metallurgy. Through Year 3-4 students’
participation in above groups, students’ abilities get
developed in all-around way.
V. CONCLUSION
In order to balance the supply and need of the
professionals for the modern mining industry, different
engineering education shall be conducted at different
levels. A case study on educating the mineral professional
was suggested that spreading the knowledge (including
mining, metallurgy and other disciplines) on the mining
industry chain might be important to the undergraduate
students. Through reforming and optimizing the courses,
the mentioned three packages of the compulsory courses
not only widen the students’ knowledge, but also expend
the students’ career, which sets a good example for other
disciplines. At the same time, considering the imbalance
of science and technology in China, top priority should be
given to upgrade the skills of those working in remote
areas through short courses and online teaching.
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