As it scrambles to find enough skilled workers for its booming mining operations in northern Nevada, Newmont Mining Corp. is fine-tuning its recruitment of folks who are leaving the nation's military.
The thinking: The skills learned by a hydraulics specialist who takes care of fighters in the Air Force are likely to transfer easily to the maintenance of equipment that moves ore underground, says Nick Tompkins, employment manager for Newmont.
But rather than waiting for skilled workers in the military to somehow respond to Newmont's employment
advertising, the company is aggressively working with the Defense Department staff who help members of the armed services make the transition to the civilian world.
The first group of 13 former members of the military were hired by Newmont in May and currently are undertaking the training they need to move into mining jobs.
Those 13 were selected from a group of 16 brought by Newmont to northern Nevada for interviews. Everyone who was offered a job with Newmont accepted.
"They're coming out of a very structured world," Tompkins says. "What Newmont has to offer is stability."
A challenge, he says, is ensuring that potential recruits from military positions understand what life is like in rural Nevada. For a Navy veteran who probably spent much of his military career stationed near the sea, the change can be dramatic.
"We're trying to be selective and make sure they know what they're getting into," Tompkins says.
Along with the skills they've learned, the ex-military recruits have a strong ethic and a can-do attitude, the
Newmont manager says.
Newmont, the second-biggest gold miner in the state after Barrick Gold, employs about 3,506 workers at
its operations in Nevada, including mines that stretch in a 100-mile belt between Carlin and Winnemucca.
