Mining | We tear up university graduates

Students in bachelor’s degree programs in mining engineering are popular. Very often, they sign employment contracts with companies even before they have obtained their diploma. For this reason, recruitment for graduate studies is very difficult in the field. Results ? It is mainly international students who are enrolled in the master’s and doctoral programs.

Of the 90 students in the graduate programs of the Institute for Research in Mines and Environment (IRME) of the University of Quebec in Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT) and Polytechnique Montreal, approximately 90% come from abroad .

“There is really a big challenge in recruiting students who are completing a bachelor’s degree in science and engineering in Quebec to get them to pursue a master’s degree,” says Vincent Cloutier, professor and director of the IRME.

This difficulty is also experienced in Quebec.

“We have close to thirty students in our graduate programs in mining engineering and about half, if not a majority, come from abroad”, indicates Martin Grenon, director of the department of Mining, Metallurgy and Materials Engineering from Université Laval.

The recruiting challenge begins at the undergraduate level at Université Laval. Its cooperative bachelor’s degree in mining and mineral engineering manages to attract 25 to 30 students per year, but it could accommodate more. Then, it is difficult to convince them to continue their studies at the higher level.

The major issues to explore

The industry also wants specialists with graduate degrees. “The needs for environmental consultants are glaring,” observes Vincent Cloutier. If we go back 15 years, mining companies did not necessarily have an environmental department. Sometimes they only had one person, or a small team. Now, with all the regulations in place, they need big teams. »

The 16 IRME professors and their graduate students focus on various research topics, from water treatment to site restoration, including the revegetation of mining areas, not to mention the transport of contaminants and minerals. critical and strategic.

Martin Grenon also points out that in mines, whether open pit or underground, there are a host of technical questions to be addressed. “Some mines in Abitibi are more than 3,000 meters deep, which represents enormous challenges in terms of stability and ventilation in particular,” he explains. Then there are projects in northern environments where you have to work with permafrost and extremely cold temperatures. Mining engineering is less well known than civilian work, because it is less visible, and that is one of the recruitment challenges. But it is an area with extraordinary challenges to overcome. »