An increase in indigenous staff is likely to lead to an increase in employee retention.

Rio’s Pilbara workforce is 8 per cent Aboriginal with a target of 20 per cent by 2012. Oz Minerals’ Prominent Hill in the far north of SA has 36 Aborigines out of a workforce of some 1100 – or 3 per cent.

That figure of 36 might not seem much but it’s 32 more than the number of Aborigines working at BHP Billiton’s Roxby Downs mine.

So when the big mining companies launch campaigns to beef up their indigenous workforces, they need a strategy to engage with locals.

An Adelaide recruitment company headed up by a dynamic young Maori, has come up with what it hopes is a successful formula.

Donald Dickie is the New Zealand born CEO of Source4, a training and recruitment business started with a colleague, Daniel Custance.

They have put together a group of 14 Aborigines and are training them for a Certificate ll in metalliferous mining operations.

Source4 has hired the services of former AFL Brownlow medallist and 300-game veteran, Gavin Wanganeen, as a mentor to the group. Dickie and Wanganeen were teammates in Port Adelaide’s inaugural AFL season in 1997.

According to Dickie, many Aboriginal people believe they are overtrained and the barrier to getting a job in the mining industry is not training, it’s having on-the-job experience. So he has negotiated with BHP Billiton for his Aboriginal group to undertake an Indigenous Familiarisation Program at Roxby Downs starting next week.

The program is aimed at providing hands-on experience in working and living at Olympic Dam. Full work rotation shifts will give them insight into employment in mining and give both parties better information about pursing mining work.

Six of the participants will be in the smelter, four in the mine, four in processing, two in supplies and the others in maintenance, emergency services and contractors. All participants may undergo drug and alcohol testing while on site and any who fail will be terminated from the program. Source4 have financed most of the training program to demonstrate to industry its capacity to provide a useful Aboriginal pathway to mining program.

Dickie said his vision was to train Aborigines directly for mining companies without the involvement of the Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology, DFEEST.

“This program is not only an opportunity for local Aborigines to get jobs with a leading mining company but a chance for us to get some runs on the board results wise. We are hoping this pilot program will be a success,” Dickie said.