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Paul Nelson, KSL NewsradioMine owners may have a tough time finding new engineers for their operations.
The seats in the University of Utah College of Mining are somewhat emptier than they were a decade ago. Professors say the lack of interest happened long before the Crandall Canyon Mine Disaster.
Professor James Donovan says, "In the late '70s or early '80s [there was] a big boom, a big mining boom. We had a lot of graduates, but then there was a big bust."
Donovan says current students just weren't as interested in becoming mine engineers when they were children in the '80s.
He says there were only three graduates of their program last summer, but don't feel sorry for them. Donovan says, "The three graduates last year probably received close to 15 job offers."
Donovan says they've flatlined at anywhere between 40 and 50 students in the program altogether.
