At the same time as Australia is poised to take advantage of soaring demand for critical minerals, our mining workforce could be facing a critical shortage.

The Australian Academy of Science flagged geoscience as one of 8 key areas projected to grow in demand in its 2025 policy report. But it faces a weak pipeline, according to the report, with dropping university enrolments and rising workforce shortages.

Several universities have closed their earth sciences departments, and the workforce is projected to age as well as shrink. But leading work at the University of Tasmania (UTas) and Curtin University shows how Australia could attract a new wave of students – and shape them into the future mining workforce.

It’s more than coal, oil and gas

One major challenge for the mining industry is attracting local geology talent. “If you go to most mine sites around Australia, you will find that there’s a whole lot of geologists from overseas on short-term or long-term visas,” says Sebastien Meffre, Head of Earth Sciences at the University of Tasmania.

But the field seems to have passed rock bottom, for now. This year, enrolments in geosciences have started to increase again at UTas, with more postgraduate and student professionals filling gaps in courses left behind by undergraduates.

The mining industry’s shift in focus to critical minerals has made a big difference, according to Meffre. The industry is no longer associated purely with coal, oil, and gas, but with the elements needed to make solar panels and batteries.

“The role of critical minerals for not just the prosperity and economic development of Australia, but also as a way of addressing the climate transition – those conversations have been extremely helpful for us,” says Meffre.

Balancing boom-and-bust

In Western Australia, the turnaround happened earlier, with enrolments trending up from the early 2020s. Martin Van Kranendonk, Head of the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Dean of Science at Curtin University, says they now have record-high numbers of geoscience students. He sees this uptick as part of one of the boom-and-bust cycles so familiar to the mining industry.

“I think the challenge for university departments has been: how do we ride those waves?”

Van Kranendonk’s answer is diversity in teaching. Students at Curtin can combine geoscience with subjects like environmental science or planetary science, allowing them to turn their skills to the space industry or mine site rehabilitation if the mineral markets change.

UTas has taken a similar path, with opportunities to combine geoscience with a raft of other subjects, such as environmental science, palaeontology, and engineering. Meffre says students don’t always realise they have these options when they start studying. “It requires conversations with students at the first year level in order for them to take the right units in order to get there.”

“If we can provide diverse pathways, then we hope that we can keep our student numbers up and continue to be viable and continue to have meaning for the community,” says Van Kranendonk.

Learning across landscapes: cross-institutional opportunities

Meffre believes cross-institutional teaching is going to be a key part of the future of geosciences. Students might make up some of their course credits by going interstate for an intensive course during teaching breaks, gaining key skills from another institution and learning in a totally different geological environment.

Van Kranendonk agrees. “We can’t all do everything, so the ability to go and find additional resources or training that might suit your interests elsewhere is fantastic.”

Wherever they’re learning – and location matters very much in geology – students must get a more holistic view of the environment and how it intersects with geology and mining.

“People now can really feel good about going into geoscience because it is providing benefit to community,” says Van Kranendonk.