The $200,000-a-Year Mine Worker

[Bill Mattocks]

I remember when something like this happened when I was in high school in Colorado back in the late 1970's. The molybdenum mines were recruiting miners right out of high school, many quit school to become miners. And for awhile, it seemed like a sure-fire way to get rich quick. These kids were earning well over $100,000 a year in 1978 dollars and they were 17 or 18 years old. Their cost of living was very low, they lived in the mountains in company-provided trailers and had no recreation (no internet, no cable TV, and local TV and radio was sad) and they could not even drink legally (Colorado allowed 3.2% beer at 18, everything else at 21). They'd work for six months straight and then come down out of the mountains to party, and they threw around the money like crazy. I remember kids buying 4x4 trucks, paying cash for them, and wrecking and abandoning them before even putting license plates on them. One kid bought two trucks from the same dealer on the same weekend; after wrecking one, he just bought another; the first wasn't even insured.

However, the molybdenum boom died, and the workers were let go, and they had no education and nothing to fall back on. Just saying...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...16172350869312.html?google_editors_picks=true

MANDURAH, Australia—One of the fastest-growing costs in the global mining industry are workers like James Dinnison: the 25-year-old high-school dropout from Western Australia makes $200,000 a year running drills in underground mines to extract gold and other minerals.

The heavily tattooed Mr. Dinnison, who started in the mines seven years ago earning $100,000, owns a sky-blue 2009 Chevy Ute, which cost $55,000 before a $16,000 engine enhancement, and a $44,000 custom motorcycle. The price tag on his chihuahua, Dexter, which yaps at his feet: $1,200.

 

[mook jong man]

Yeah they keep telling us in Australia how fantastic our economy is going , but it's only fantastic if your in Western Australia and working in the mines.Everybody else is living on Struggle Street trying to survive in the face of ever increasing electricity bills , water bills , exorbitant grocery prices , petrol price rip offs and still having enough left over to keep a roof over your head. So it is great for those involved in the mining boom , but for the rest of us not so much.

 

[David43515]

I have alot of friends down in Sydney, so I looked into the possability of emmigrating when my divorce is final next spring. It seemed that the only skills or work experience anyone was looking for was in the mining industry. Machinists,engineers,and geologists could get the visa wheels greased very easily....the rest of us not so much.

 

[Carol]

Oy, sorry to hear the news David. All the best for whatever lies ahead.

 

[Tez3]

I have alot of friends down in Sydney, so I looked into the possability of emmigrating when my divorce is final next spring. It seemed that the only skills or work experience anyone was looking for was in the mining industry. Machinists,engineers,and geologists could get the visa wheels greased very easily....the rest of us not so much.

It's been like that for a long time, even if you come from the Commonwealth you have to have job skills they need before you can emigrate there.
This is their skills list. If your trade isn't on it you can't apply.
http://www.workpermit.com/australia/skilled/occupation_list.htm

My parents nearly emigrated years ago on the ten pound scheme.

 

[mook jong man]

It's been like that for a long time, even if you come from the Commonwealth you have to have job skills they need before you can emigrate there.
This is their skills list. If your trade isn't on it you can't apply.
http://www.workpermit.com/australia/skilled/occupation_list.htm

My parents nearly emigrated years ago on the ten pound scheme.

We emigrated here on the "Steal a loaf of bread , get fifty lashes and transported scheme" :rofl:

 

[Sukerkin]

:chuckles: Ahh, the good old days of Outsourcing Version 1.0 .

On a more serous note, Mook, it's not that much different here in Blighty these days when it comes to the working man making a lot of money. Replace Mining with The Square Mile and it's about the same i.e. if you're one of the thieving bastards who work in the City, then you're doing fine off everyone elses pain ... otherwise it's a case of "Too bad peasant!".

We've had Snake-Oil Blairs successor (i.e. Posh-Boy Cameron) in the news today saying how Britiain needs to value it's engineers more and how there is a huge shortfall in the numbers of people like me (SCADA engineer) ... that's hardly a surprise given the appalling low wages engineers have to put up with, even in rare disciplines like SCADA.

My company has two dozen vacancies for engineers at present and they can't fill then, even using talent from abroad - could the terrible wages be part of it do you think?

 

[Tez3]

:chuckles: Ahh, the good old days of Outsourcing Version 1.0 .

On a more serous note, Mook, it's not that much different here in Blighty these days when it comes to the working man making a lot of money. Replace Mining with The Square Mile and it's about the same i.e. if you're one of the thieving bastards who work in the City, then you're doing fine off everyone elses pain ... otherwise it's a case of "Too bad peasant!".

We've had Snake-Oil Blairs successor (i.e. Posh-Boy Cameron) in the news today saying how Britiain needs to value it's engineers more and how there is a huge shortfall in the numbers of people like me (SCADA engineer) ... that's hardly a surprise given the appalling low wages engineers have to put up with, even in rare disciplines like SCADA.

My company has two dozen vacancies for engineers at present and they can't fill then, even using talent from abroad - could the terrible wages be part of it do you think?

Watching BBC Breakfast this morning, they had an item on a million pound prize for engineers. They are trying to attract people to become engineers as it's not seen as a 'sexy' profession.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15770648

 

[Carol]

I think being an engineer is damn sexy

 

[Tez3]

I think being an engineer is damn sexy

The comp is not just open to engineers in the UK, it's supposed to be worldwide so if any engineers want a million quid?

 

[jks9199]

I think being an engineer is damn sexy

Or perhaps it's just that some engineers are sexy...

I know that's what my brother would claim -- that he's a sexy engineer!

 

[granfire]

Or perhaps it's just that some engineers are sexy...

I know that's what my brother would claim -- that he's a sexy engineer!

now of course we need proof....

 

[granfire]

We emigrated here on the "Steal a loaf of bread , get fifty lashes and transported scheme" :rofl:

kinky travel arrangements, mate!

 

[mook jong man]

kinky travel arrangements, mate!

Yeah a bit like the "Love Boat" except with scurvy , dysentery and fever.

 

[granfire]

Yeah a bit like the "Love Boat" except with scurvy , dysentery and fever.

sexy!

 

[elder999]

now of course we need proof....

Engineers do it with precision.