On October 8, I gave a presentation at the SME Florida Section meeting on mining business trends and state of the Florida phosphate industry. I began with a global perspective on the mining industry using Deloitte’s report on the Top 10 global issues facing mining companies in 2013 and the interconnectedness of the world’s economy, since mining is the start of the global economic value chain. The Top 10 list includes: rising costs, market uncertainty, fewer capital projects, increased mergers and acquisitions, government control, geopolitical risk, social responsibility, labor and talent shortages, health and safety, and investment in IT.
SME President-Elect John Marsden at the podium.
I moved on to talk about the current state of the U.S. and Florida phosphate mining industry where Florida ranks first in the production of phosphate (about 65% if the U.S. production). As opposition to mining is increasing, even on private lands in Florida, mine permits along with all necessary environmental permits are harder to obtain. This is leading to more pressure to balance the need for the mined resource with economic and environmental concerns of the local community.
SME Florida Section Chair, George McQuien introducing the 2013 SME Hero of the Year award to Reab Berry.
Lastly, I gave an overview of a few of the current SME program initiatives including the creation of a SME committee on education sustainability to address the Ph.D. faculty pipeline, research and student scholarships. I addressed current workforce trends in the U.S. mining industry and focused on the fact that a large number of upcoming industry retirements are putting pressure on the industry to backfill the expected longer term brain-drain. I also talked about the current technical briefing papers developed by SME’s Government and Public Affairs Committee that are used to educate elected officials, the media and the general public on various aspects of the mining industry. Finally, I closed by addressing SME’s increased use of social media for program promotion and membership recruitment and retention.