Training Alaska's next generation: preparing regional residents for work in the mines.

• Author: Bohi, Heidi
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: MINING

Every large mining project in Alaska, whether it is currently in production or still working its way through the development stages, will ultimately be accepted or rejected by residents of surrounding communities and other local stakeholders according to its ability to be an economic boon to the region where the mine site sits.

Jobs, jobs, jobs. This is the promise that mining companies make--and as history has shown, eventually follow through on--when giving stakeholders one more reason to support their development efforts. These rural areas typically have little else in the means of economic development opportunities, so even in the face of other uncertainties about the projects, eventually, the region's residents and business community will rally behind advancing the mine.

Dave Rees, a work force development consultant whose career was built on helping oil and gas industry companies shape the labor force needed for large projects, is currently working with Pebble Limited Partnership to help it develop a plan leading up to matching residents from the Bristol Bay region with entry-level and advanced professional positions needed for labor-intensive construction and operational phases of the project.

"How do you make the mine a good thing for the region?" Rees asks.

Although a bit understated, this, he says, is the top priority of deep-pocket mining companies that know all too well that their only chance of garnering regional support for a mining project is by proving from the outset that they have a foolproof plan for putting multiple generations of the region to work for generations to come.

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The immediate task at hand is to train locals for jobs at the mine, though the company maintains that job skills and education required in the mining industry are transferable to many other professional disciplines. Pebble does not expect those benefiting from the training to be tied to the mine necessarily, and hopes locals take full advantage of the skills and education available to them--even if it means their professional gain may become Pebble's loss.

"We'd like the local residents who contribute to the project work force to maximize their life experience, whether they are working at the project and living with their families nearby, working elsewhere in the state, or even traveling the world," says Gary DeSchutter, technical operations manager for Pebble says. "We want to add to their working and life experiences so it can take them wherever they want to go."

PUT ALASKANS TO WORK

No two mines are alike. At the same time, they all share the philosophy that...