Finding Leaders Who Aren't Looking
Plenty of mining companies, executive teams and boards already understand that posting a role and hoping the right person applies isn't going to find them a leader. That's not news to most people reading this, and as a result, most choose to bring in an executive search firm or a recruitment firm to help with the search.
What I don't think enough of them have worked out is that the choice of firm matters just as much as the decision to use one in the first place. A generalist recruiter and a specialist search firm with a genuine, decades-deep network in this sector are not interchangeable, even when they're quoting a similar fee and describing a similar process. I've spent twenty years watching that gap play out: the first decade plus in contingent search, the last nine running retained mandates across mining, energy, forestry and renewables. I've made my share of mistakes along the way too. What follows is what the data says, and what twenty years of doing this work has taught me about which choice actually gets you the leader you need.
1. A Sector Short on the People It Needs
Let’s start with the numbers, because they're stark enough to change how any board should think about this. Mining directly employs about 438,000 people in Canada, with another 272,000 in indirect roles, and the sector contributes $111 billion to GDP. (Mining Association of Canada, Facts & Figures 2026) That's a big, important industry. It's also one already running hotter than almost anywhere else in the economy: MiHR's 2024 Outlook found five of six labour-tightness indicators still elevated, with mining and quarrying unemployment as low as roughly 1%, against an all-industry average nearer 5%. There has been less than one unemployed worker available for every open role. (MiHR, Canadian Mining Outlook 2024)
I don't think most executive teams have really internalized what that means. It means the applicant pool for a senior technical or leadership role, in the traditional sense, is close to empty.
The forward math is worse. MiHR projects the industry will need to hire 191,385 workers between 2024 and 2034, mostly to replace retirements, against a forecast shortfall of roughly 39,269 workers. By MiHR's own estimate, about a quarter of all hires will be genuinely difficult to make by 2034. (MiHR, Canadian Mining Outlook 2024) The Mining Association of Canada separately puts the number at a minimum of 135,000 hires needed over the next decade just to replace retirees. (Mining Association of Canada, Facts & Figures 2026)
The layer I believe we need to care most about, the technical and professional talent this industry actually runs on, is thinning even faster than the workforce overall. Between 25% and 30% of the current mining workforce is 55 or older, and close to half of skilled mining engineers are expected to retire within the next decade. (Mining Association of Canada, 2024; Deloitte, cited in MINING.COM) Behind them, the pipeline has narrowed sharply: the number of geoscientists in Canada fell 11% between 2011 and 2021, and core geoscience and geological engineering enrolment dropped roughly 50% between 2015 and 2022, as students choose broader environmental programs instead. (Geoscience Canada, 2023)
Underneath all of this is a demand story that isn't slowing down. Canada's critical minerals, the metals feeding batteries, grid infrastructure, and the broader energy transition, are becoming more strategically important, not less. I happen to believe responsible mining is essential to how we actually get through an energy transition, whether or not the general public appreciates that yet, and demand for the people who can run these operations safely and well is only going to keep climbing against a shrinking supply of them.
The market has already priced this in. Average total compensation in mining hit $146,858 in 2024, an 88% premium over the $78,088 all-industry average. (Mining Association of Canada, Facts & Figures 2026) Even Ottawa has decided this is urgent: in June 2026, the federal government launched the Mining and Minerals Workforce Alliance, backed by $81 million over five years and led by MiHR alongside the Mining Association of Canada. (Government of Canada, June 2026) When government starts standing up sector-specific workforce alliances, that should tell every board in this industry something about how seriously to take this.
2. How I Actually Run a Search
I made the switch from contingent to retained search about nine years ago and started my own retained search firm, KPO Search, almost 6 years ago. The difference isn't cosmetic. A contingent agency gets paid only if it places someone, works without exclusivity, and has every incentive to move fast and move on. A retained search firm is engaged exclusively, paid in stages regardless of how long the mandate takes, and has every reason to stay in it until the job is actually done properly. (Consistent with standard retained search fee and engagement structures; see Keller Executive Search, 2026) I've seen both sides of that incentive structure up close, and for a scarce, technical, senior role, there really is no contest.
Fee structures across the industry are fairly consistent: 25% to 33% of the placed candidate's first-year compensation, usually billed in three stages, roughly a third at engagement, a third at shortlist, the remainder on start date. What that fee actually buys, when the search is done right, isn't a stack of resumes. It's a firm that has already spent years building relationships with the people you actually want, long before your role ever opened.
Strip away the branding and every proper retained search moves through the same stages: understanding the mandate properly, mapping the market and building a genuine long list, direct and confidential outreach to people who aren't applying anywhere, a shortlist of three to six fully assessed candidates, structured interviews, real reference work, negotiation, and staying involved through onboarding. (Framework consistent with KPO Search, Keller Executive Search and JRG Partners process descriptions, 2026) I've run this process more times than I can count, and the stage that separates a good search from a bad one is almost always the first one: understanding, in real depth, what the client actually needs, not what the job description says they need.
3. Why These Searches Take Longer Than Anyone Wants to Hear
Boards ask me all the time why a search is taking longer than they expected. I understand the frustration. But generic hiring benchmarks were never built for what we're doing in mining, and I'd rather tell a client the truth upfront than let them find out the hard way three months in.
Across industries, director-level searches typically run 6 to 12 weeks, VP roles 8 to 14 weeks, and C-suite mandates 12 to 16 weeks or more. (Talentfoot, 2026) A comprehensive search, done properly through notice periods and onboarding, commonly runs 20 to 24 weeks in total. (Keller Executive Search, 2026; JRG Partners, 2026)
Mining sometimes pushes those numbers further, and I'd argue for good reason. The candidate pool for a senior geologist, mine manager, or VP Exploration is genuinely small; there may only be a handful of truly qualified people in the entire country. Roles needing a P.Eng. or P.Geo. designation, or specific ore body or jurisdiction experience, narrow that pool further still, and that isn't something a generalist recruiter can screen for reliably. Site-based and fly-in/fly-out roles come with rotation handoffs, notice periods tied to project cycles, and family relocation decisions that simply take longer to work through than an urban office move. And for the many Canadian mining companies listed on the TSX or TSX Venture Exchange, a leadership search often has to be run with real discretion given disclosure obligations, which trades some speed for confidentiality.
Put it together, and a mining leadership search landing at four to seven months from mandate to start date is normal. It isn't a sign anything has gone wrong. It's a sign the process is being done properly.
4. The 85% Problem
Here's the thing that takes some people a while to really internalize in this business, and it's still the thing most companies get wrong: the vast majority of the people you want are not looking for a job.
Industry estimates put the passive share of the workforce (people not actively job hunting but open to the right approach) at somewhere between 73% and 85%, with only around 15% actively searching at any given time. Ninety-five percent of employed professionals say they're open to hearing about the right opportunity even when they're not looking. (Compiled passive-candidate research, 2026) Cold outreach converts at only 3% to 5%, referral-based approaches run roughly ten times more effective than job boards, and sourcing passive candidates takes about 30% longer than sourcing active applicants, averaging 4.5 months from first contact to hire. (Compiled passive-candidate research, 2026)
Now put that next to the labour numbers in Section 1. The qualified pool in this sector is already small and shrinking, and 85% of it isn't looking anywhere near a job board. A company relying on postings and inbound applications is competing for a sliver of a sliver of the market, and most of them don't realize it.
This is the piece of the talent conversation I think our industry gets most wrong. We are very good at talking to ourselves, at conferences, in our own trade press, inside our own networks, and that, in my opinion, is a big part of the problem. The people who could help solve this shortage are mostly sitting outside mining's own echo chamber, and reaching them takes more than a job posting. It takes someone who already knows how to have that conversation.
5. Why Sector Expertise Decides Who You Actually Reach
If the people you need aren't searching, the only way to reach them is to already know who they are, or to be close enough to their network that an introduction is possible. That isn't something you build during a search. It's something you bring to one.
I've watched this play out from both sides of the table over twenty years. A senior geologist or mine manager can tell within about thirty seconds of a call whether the person on the other end actually understands the work (the ore body, the permitting, the safety culture) or is reading from a script. Candidates in this industry respond to recruiters who speak their language, and they shut down fast for the ones who don't.
That's exactly the model we've built at KPO. Our network across mining, energy, forestry, and renewables, from Executive and Board roles through Senior Leadership, Corporate Services, Site Operations and Maintenance, and Technical positions, wasn't built for any one search. It's been built over years of actually working in this sector, across North and South America and Globally. When we take on a mandate, we're usually already having the conversation, or one call away from it, with people who've never posted a resume anywhere and never will, because nobody's ever needed to ask them to.
For the many mining companies listed on the TSX or TSX Venture Exchange, there's a governance dimension to this too. Running a confidential search without spooking the market, competitors, or the incumbent takes a firm that understands that context going in, not one learning it on the fly.
6. What Getting It Wrong, or Slow, Actually Costs
The fee is never the real number to worry about. Multiple compensation studies converge on the finding that a bad senior or executive hire costs somewhere between 6 and 27 times the individual's base salary once you account for severance, lost productivity, team disruption, and having to run the search again. Other estimates put the all-in cost of replacing a C-suite mis-hire as high as 213% of annual salary. (MSSE; SHRM data, as compiled in prior KPO Search research)
Mining adds a dimension most industries don't carry. Leadership and senior technical roles are usually tied directly to project milestones: a feasibility study, a permitting submission, a financing round, a production ramp-up. A vacancy or a mis-hire at the wrong moment doesn't just cost salary and productivity. It can push back a capital-markets event or a regulatory deadline the whole company's timeline depends on. I've seen it happen, and it's a far more expensive problem than the one a faster, cheaper hire was trying to avoid.
7. What I'd Tell Any Board Doing This
If you're a board or executive team deciding how to run a leadership or senior technical search in this sector, I'd ask four questions before signing anything:
● Does the firm already have an active network in this exact subsector, or would they be building one from scratch on your timeline?
● Can they show genuine reach into passive, currently-employed candidates, not just a database of job-board applicants?
● Is the engagement retained and exclusive, so the firm has real reason to prioritize your mandate, rather than one of several agencies chasing the same role?
● Do they understand your governance and disclosure context well enough to run this confidentially?
None of those questions are unique to mining. What's unique to mining is how much the answers matter, given how small, how aging, and how thoroughly unavailable this candidate pool already is.
A Final Word
Twenty years in, I'm more convinced than when I started that this is a relationship business dressed up as a hiring process. The firms that treat it as a database exercise will keep losing to the ones with an actual network to draw on, and the companies that keep hiring on job-board timelines will keep losing the leaders who were never going to see their posting in the first place.
The leaders worth hiring usually aren't looking. Go find them anyway.
Sources
1. Mining Association of Canada, Facts & Figures Report 2026. mining.ca
2. Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR), Canadian Mining Outlook 2024. mihr.ca
3. Government of Canada, Employment and Social Development Canada, "Minister Hajdu and industry leaders launch the Mining and Minerals Workforce Alliance," June 2026. canada.ca
4. Geoscience Canada, "Recent Labour and Education Trends Regarding Geoscientists and Geological Engineers in Canada," 2023. journals.lib.unb.ca
5. MINING.COM, "Mining industry faces aging workforce and retirement challenges," citing Deloitte analysis. mining.com
6. Keller Executive Search, "Retained Search: What To Know Before Engaging With An Executive Recruiter," and Mining Recruitment & Executive Search practice page, 2026. kellerexecutivesearch.com
7. JRG Partners, "The Timeline of an Executive Search: Setting Realistic Expectations," 2026. jrgpartners.com
8. Talentfoot, "Executive Time-to-Fill Benchmarks by Role: 2026 Report." talentfoot.com
9. Compiled passive-candidate sourcing statistics, 2026 (industry survey data, gitnux.org and related trade sources).
10. MSSE / SHRM-derived mis-hire and cost-of-hire benchmarks, as compiled in prior KPO Search research ("Beyond the Hire," 2026), cross-referenced against SHRM 2025–2026 benchmarking data.