2427 importance to the energy transition and global infrastructure, entry into mining-specific disciplines remains limited. In the absence of structured educational exposure, early perceptions—often shaped by environmental concerns, safety assumptions, and lifestyle expectations—may form prior to informed engagement. These perception-based filters can divert potential entrants before they develop a concrete understanding of occupational pathways or technological roles. The alignment between student and industry responses is consistent with the presence of a Pipeline Gap associated with informational distance and limited visibility. Perceptions of technological identity further appear to mediate this process. While a substantial proportion of students recognize mining’s technological advancement, many remain uncertain, and a majority express preference for innovation-oriented sectors. Despite increasing integration of automation, data analytics, and digital modelling systems, mining does not appear to be consistently associated with a forward-facing technological narrative. The observed shift in perception following informational exposure suggests that some elements of career filtering may be responsive to improved awareness, although the persistence of such shifts over time would require further investigation. At the downstream level, industry responses indicate continued reliance on mentorship-based transfer of tacit knowledge. Moderate graduate preparedness ratings and extended time-to-productivity suggest that experiential development remains central to professional formation. Under conditions of demographic aging, declining inflow may increase training demands on a shrinking senior cohort, potentially slowing knowledge transfer and increasing operational sensitivity. Although AI-supported systems are viewed positively for documentation and information management, their application remains largely supportive rather than substitutive, and core expertise continues to reside primarily within experienced professionals. Taken together, these findings are consistent with the interpretation that workforce sustainability in mining involves interconnected entry and continuity dynamics. The interaction between constrained professional inflow contraction and concentrated expertise may shape institutional resilience over time, particularly in a technically complex and capital-intensive sector. 7. CONCLUSION This study argues that workforce capacity now constitutes a structural determinant of long-term mineral supply stability in the mining sector. As entry into mining-specific disciplines remains constrained and demographic retirement accelerates, the industry faces a progressive narrowing of technical depth at a time when demand for critical minerals is expanding. In capital-intensive and technically complex operations, sustained human capital compression may translate into extended project timelines, heightened technical risk exposure, and increased cost volatility. These pressures reflect structural dynamics rather than cyclical labour fluctuations. Addressing this challenge requires coordinated attention to both dimensions of the Double Talent Gap. Strengthening the professional inflow pipeline necessitates systematic integration of mining-related content within broader educational pathways, enhanced industry–university collaboration and expanded early-career exposure mechanisms. Without sector-level coordination, individual firms face limited incentives to invest in long-horizon educational engagement. At the same time, knowledge continuity must be reinforced through more deliberate institutionalization of expertise. AI-enabled systems—when designed to support documentation, indexing, and retrieval—may enhance onboarding efficiency and mitigate expertise concentration risk, provided professional judgment remains central to decision-making processes. Focusing on only one dimension is unlikely to restore resilience. Reduced inflow increases reliance on existing expertise, while insufficient knowledge system integration constrains its scalability. Ultimately, the sector’s capacity to support the global energy transition will depend not only on geological endowment, but on its ability to sustain professional inflow and institutionalize technical knowledge. In this context,
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