Apprenticeship - Extractives & Mineral Processing

Everyone depends on the earth's mineral resources. These natural resources must be found, then mined, quarried or dredged from the ground or sea bed and processed to provide the materials and products which are essential to our daily lives.

Extraction takes place at either quarries for sand, gravel and rock; mines for coal, salt and potash and dredging from the sea bed for sand and gravel. Materials from both quarrying and dredging are then processsed to meet the needs of customers. For example, crushed rock can be coated with bitumen at an asphalt plant and then used to make or repair roads, runways, playgrounds, car parks and much more. Crushed rock, sand and gravel can be mixed with cement to produce concrete which is widely used in construction. The construction industry is totally reliant on minerals in order to build homes, hospitals, bridges and roads. Such is the importance of the materials quarried and mined.

The Industry

The Extractives and Mineral Processing industry is very diverse and can be divided into a number of different sub-sectors. For example, the industry covers:

• Deep coal mines and opencast coal working
• Mining and agglomeration of lignite
• Extraction and agglomeration of peat
• Manufacture of solid fuel
• Mining of iron ore, uranium, thorium and other non-ferrous metal ores
• Quarrying of ornamental and building stone, limestone, gypsum, chalk and slate
• Operation of sand and gravel pits
• Mining of clays, kaolin, chemical and fertilizer minerals
• Production of salt
• Manufacture of cement,  lime, plaster, ready-mixed concrete and mortars
• Cutting, shaping and finishing of ornamental and building stone

Currently quarrying and mining employs nearly 50 thousand people in the UK and a further 20 thousand in jobs related to the industry - technicians, fitters, drillers etc. The total annual production value exceeds £6 billion. There are over 1,300 quarries in the UK supported by a fleet of 25 marine aggregate dredgers together they produce 210 million tonnes of aggregate per year.

The skill base requirements for the sector covers a wide scope, ranging from mobile and fixed plant operators through to mining technicians and quarry managers. The industry offers a vast array of opportunities ranging from mining, civil, mechanical and industrial engineering, geology, logistics, operations, production, environment, health & safety and sales and marketing.

It is widely predicted that higher level management and technical skills will become increasingly important to the industry in the future as more of the elementary tasks become automated. There will be a continuing need for Health & Safety skills in the sector and it will become more important for workers to be multi-skilled and be able to work across several areas of the business.

Extensive research and comprehensive employer consultation has identified a need to upskill current and future workforces to enable businesses in the Extractives and Mineral Processing industries to address the challenges they currently face. The current economic climate means that there is an increasing need for workforces to be multi-skilled.

Apprenticeship Framework Overview

Extractives and Mineral Processing Occupations (England)

The Extractives and Mineral Processing framework provides work based training for young people and adults to undertake key manufacturing and technical roles in Extractives & Mineral Processing industries. There are two levels of Apprenticeship contained in this framework:

Level 2 Intermediate Apprenticeship in Extractives and Mineral Processing

Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship in Extractives and Mineral Processing

Job Roles

The Apprenticeship underpins a range of operator (Level 2) job roles including:

• Mining Operations
• Fixed Plant Operations
• Mobile Plant Operations
• Extractives Drill Rig Operations
• Mines Rescue
• Blasting Operations

The Apprenticeship underpins a range of supervisory (Level 3) job roles including:

• Mines - Electrical
• Mines - Mechanical
• Mines Shotfiring
• Mines Maintenance Supervision
• Processing Plant Supervision
• Shotfiring
• Mines - Electrical - POTASH
• Mines - Mechanical - POTASH