2421 Figure 1 – Students’ Perception of Mining’s Relevance for the Future Figure 2– Proportion of Students Who View Mining as a Viable Career Option 4.2 Structural Barrier to Entry When asked to identify reasons for not considering mining careers, respondents most frequently cited: perceived safety risks, physically demanding or remote work environments limited educational exposure, and a lack of clear information regarding available career roles and progression pathways. Notably, several responses noted that other career professions, such as medicine, law, and engineering, were emphasized more prominently throughout their education, while mining-related careers were either minimally represented or framed negatively. When asked to compare mining with their ideal, 60.8% described mining as unattractive or very unattractive, while 19.6% expressed neutral views. However, several respondents indicated conditional openness to corporate or office-based roles, within the mining sector, suggesting less willing to pursue fieldbased positions, again citing lifestyle and safety concerns. These findings indicate that early-stage career filtering is influenced less by technical capability concerns and more by value alignment and lifestyle expectations. Figure 3 – Respondent Assessment of the Mining Industry’s Attractiveness Relative to Their Preferred Career Path Highly relevant 73% Not relevant 1% Somewhat relevant 22% Unsure 4% Briefly Considered but Decided Against It 5% Not Viable 92% Viable 3% Neutral 20% Not familiar enough to judge 8% Somewhat attractive 10% Somewhat unattractive 32% Very attractive 2% Very unattractive 28%
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