IKALUKTUTIAK/CAMBRIDGE BAY - In mid-February, during Day Three of the 2011 Kitikmeot Trade Show, Alex Buchan, manager of community and external relations for Newmont Mining Corporation, spoke with a dozen Grade 11 and 12 students from across the Kitikmeot region inside Cambridge Bay.

Alex Buchan, manager of community and external relations for Newmont Mining Corporation, speaks to a group of 10 students from across the Kitikmeot region about future job opportunities at the company's Hope Bay gold project. - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo

The topic: the process they will have to go through if they choose to apply for a job at the company's Hope Bay mine, which is currently still under development.

Speaking plainly, Buchan provided some insight into how Newmont is marketing itself to potential young employees. He stressed the importance of finishing high school so that candidates don't have to settle for easy (read: lower-paying) entry-level jobs and can instead work as well-paid geologists, waste treatment plant operators (Newmont's current one makes six figures, said Buchan) and managers.

Here's how Buchan outlined the application and employment process.

Getting started

First things first: stay in school, said Buchan.

"If you apply yourself and you've heavily involved in your studies, you are getting an excellent basis for a future career in mining," he said. "The things that we look for as a company are numeracy skills – being able to understand numbers, how many litres to put in a fuel tank, how many pounds or tonnes of ore to put into a bag."

The first step of the application process is to fill out an employment profile at Newmont's website.

"Everything is online these days," said Buchan.

If a position at the mine suited to a candidate's skills comes up, that person will be contact by Newmont. Usually up to 20 or 30 people are considered for one position until the pool is reduced to three or four viable candidates.

"If you had Grade 11 and there was someone who had Grade 12, we would probably look at some of the Grade 12 (students)," said Buchan. "If you worked at the Northern store for two years and if you worked for the hamlet for two weeks, we'd probably pick the person who worked for the Northern store.

"No one wants to hire anyone who's going to quit right away. It's a waste of our time as a company."

Job interview

Like with any other job, working at Newmont will require a interview, which in this case happens over the phone in most cases.

"There's no great mystery," said Buchan. "We just want to hear what the candidate has to say and we want to hear in their own words how they think that they can fit into our organization.

"A lot of people that I've had to interview from the Kitikmeot, (they) get way too nervous because you're talking to someone who's a stranger, but if you could just calm yourself down. You just go along and, as honestly and as clearly as you can, talk about why you think you're the best person for the job."

Offers and checkups

If a candidate makes the grade, they're sent a four- to five-page letter of offer.

"It's us offering you a job," said Buchan.

Next up is a pre-employment medical exam, the results of which are sent to Medic North, which is the company contracted by Newmont to provide medical services at the Hope Bay site, which is located 130 km southwest of Cambridge Bay.

"You take yourself down to your local nursing station and you get yourself a medical exam," said Buchan. "The reason for this is we operate in a remote site. We need to have some understanding of any sort of medical conditions that you might have in case your safety is threatened and we have to medevac you out.

"If you have diabetes and that's found out in a medical exam, that doesn't mean you can't work for us. It just means that we know up front that you're a diabetic. We have medical staff at site. If you fall and collapse in your bed at our camp, we at least know that you're a diabetic ... and those people can actually treat you and have a decent first response."

Buchan told an anecdote about one prospective Hope Bay employee who was turned down because his exam found he had recently had a heart attack.

"That's a case where you have to have a heart-to-heart with someone and say, 'Look, we'd like to employ you, but it's not worth your life. Perhaps you can get medical attention for your heart condition in your home community, fast enough ... but if anything happens at site, the risks are really great to you.'"

Criminal record check

Then there's the background check.

"If someone has a criminal history that might involve violence, we we don't want to put our other workers at risk," said Buchan. "For someone that has an extensive violent history, we need to find out that beforehand."

In the case of someone who has a drug or alcohol history, "that might create pause for us, but it's not a make or break deal....

"If you've had a few mistakes early on in life, don't think that you'll never get out of that situation. If you've had problems with the law before, if you can demonstrate that you've cleaned up your act ... for a non-violent crime, it's easy for a company like us to take a look at you and consider you for employment."

Getting in

Applicants who make it through the medical exam and record check are then flown to site for their first rotation, at Newmont's expense.

"You don't have to go up to First Air and say, 'Hey, I have to get up to Hope Bay.' That's all taken care of," said Buchan.

"Part of our arrangement or our understanding with the (Kitikmeot Inuit Association) is that we will not bring Kitikmeot people through Yellowknife. It would be under the most extreme or rare conditions that you're flown through Yellowknife to get to Hope Bay.

"Almost always you'll come from Cambridge Bay."

Once the charter plane touches down on the air strip, new employees are driven by bus to Doris North camp, which can hold 200 people.

"We have a security team at site and they'll search your luggage. We don't want to see alcohol and drugs at site."

Every new employee starts their career at Hope Bay with a two-day orientation.

"(The) program ... goes through, A to Z, all you need to know about working at site: where the fire alarms are, where the escapes are, what to do if you get this kind of alarm, what you do with garbage, with you do if you see some wildlife, are you allowed to fish?

"Before you do anything at site, you'll go through that two-day orientation program."

At the end of those two days, "Now you're ready for work."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.