Drew A. Meyer: An Interview With The 2012 SME President

The global mining industry will always face significant challenges. Some, though, are bigger than others. What do you consider the major challenges facing the mining industry as a whole and SME in particular? Without a doubt, the major issue in both coal and metal/nonmetal mining industries is the ?graying? of the workforce in all aspects of mining. As the baby boomers continue to age, valuable experience is being lost by industry, government and academia. And there is the potential for SME to lose some of its membership. Now with that said, I should note that, despite the aging of the workforce, SME membership continued to grow by 7.1 percent during 2011.