Sudbury employers lay out red carpet
The Sudbury Opportunity Rocks Partnership, a collaboration of 11 mining companies, suppliers and organizations in search of professional talent for the city’s booming mining cluster, wooed 140 young aspiring mining professionals at a reception in Las Vegas September 25th.
Coinciding with MINExpo, the event introduced undergraduate, Masters and PhD engineering students from across the United States and Canada to the career opportunities and lifestyle attributes of Sudbury.
The event, held at the Wynn Encore, was a huge success, said Tracy MacLeod, director of development at Laurentian University and one of the organizers of the partnership.
Students networked with representatives of the partnering organizations, learned about the city’s mining cluster and the career opportunities available to them.
Partnering companies and organizations included Cliffs Natural Resources, Vale, Xstrata Nickel, BESTECH, Technica Mining, Stantec, the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation, Laurentian University, KGHM International, Hatch and Science North/Dynamic Earth.
One student from the University of Arizona summed it up perfectly, said MacLeod.
“He said he had no idea there was a world outside Arizona, but now he knows about Sudbury and all the opportunities in the city for mining talent.”
According to MacLeod, one representative from KGHM International was “so pumped up after talking to a young man from the Colorado School of Mines that he was ready to hire him on the spot.”
The reception was promoted through email broadcasts, social media and by each of the partners at MINExpo itself, where students were easily spotted based on the colour coding of their badges. Students may not satisfy the nearterm need for engineering talent in Sudbury, “but at least we had a chance to educate them about Sudbury and get them thinking that they can start their careers here,” said MacLeod.
The need for talent in the Sudbury mining cluster is attributable to a bonanza of ongoing and imminent capital spending projects and the increasing importance of Sudbury as North America’s premier centre of mining excellence.
Nickel giant Vale, for example, is in the midst of its $2 billion Clean AER project, which will dramatically reduce sulphur dioxide emissions from its smelter complex, while Cliffs Natural Resources is planning a $1.8 billion ferrochrome production facility in the city to process chromite from its Black Thor deposit in Ontario’s recently discovered Ring of Fire district.
The partners will follow up with the students attending the event through mailouts and social media. There’s a Sudbury Opportunity Rocks LinkedIn group, a Twitter account, #OppsSudbury, and a link to employment opportunities on the city’s InvestSudbury website.
The companies and organizations hosting the event are all competing for the same talent, but MINExpo was an opportunity where “a united front” made sense, said MacLeod.
“The partners all seemed satisfied with the event and are willing to continue conversations about moving forward” with other recruitment initiatives, said MacLeod.
