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The Australian minerals industry is facing enormous challenges with major implications for professional staff and employers. The industry's ability to anticipate those challenges and to access and use the required human capabilities will define how successfully it addresses environmental pressures, commodity price fluctuations, access to land, socio-political pressures in relation to corporate and community values, and so on. The industry will also be profoundly affected by the new information technologies that require different skills and ways of working. Against this background, the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy commissioned World Competitive Practices Pty Ltd (WCP) to address the question: Are we confident that the minerals industry has the professional staff capability to appropriately position it to meet the demands of tomorrow? This project answered this question in terms of the above challenges and for the availability and provision of professional staff to address the challenges, and has drawn conclusions and recommended strategies to position the industry for success in the future.

Chapter one describes the scope and shape of the project. Chapter two outlines the structure of the report. Chapter three discusses the issues the industry faces now, from the point of view of industry professionals, and the likely situation to 2005. It establishes the conditions for a shared understanding of the status quo as a basis for planning the future. Chapter four is based on the premise that the industry acts decisively to address the challenges discussed in chapter three. It sets out a scenario for the minerals industry in 2005 were this to happen. In chapter five, actions are discussed that would establish the conditions for the above scenario to be achieved. Chapter six sets out a basis for decisions about the actions and implemenatation. The report provides little comment on the specifics of implementation on the basis that these should be considered at the time of, and in light of, decisions being taken on the recommended actions. To this end, the report makes explicit reference to a change model to guide design, discussion, decision and implementation.

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