The Kinetic Group Heartbeat Report 2012 concluded that a high turnover rate and an ageing population in the resources sector were just some of the issues weighing on the sector's ability to capitalise on the worldwide commodities boom.

The report, released yesterday, said annual turnover in the sector was as high as 24.4% while more than 18% of workers left the industry within the first year of employment.

Kinetic Group chief executive officer Derek Hunter said the high turnover within the industry was alarming.

"The turnover burden to industry is conservatively estimated at $140 million annually for direct costs of recruitment, induction and training; and the turnover rate for non-resident employees was more than double that of other employees during the 12 month sample," Hunter said.

"This is really concerning for productivity as, based on these figures, the industry will need to replace the equivalent of its whole workforce within 5.8 years."

The report pointed to the critical skills shortage in a number of professions, with engineers, supervisors and mechanics in demand.

It also said new entrants into the mining industry tended to be older than the existing workforce, with 22% of the employees aged over 50 and more than 3% aged over 60.

People under 25 made up just 10% of the industry.

"An ageing workforce is concerning because it exposes the industry to significant risk in terms of losing critical skill, knowledge and experience to retirement," Hunter said.

Hunter said there was lack of pathway programs designed for young people to enter the industry and called for the establishment of pathway programs to assist young people in gaining a foothold in the industry.

While the report painted a bleak picture on the challenges facing the sector, it was not all bad news, with the industry's workforce predicted to grow by as much as 14% over the next three year's.

In response to the report, Queensland Resources Council chief executive officer Michael Roche said the findings should be treated with caution.

"I think what the Heartbeat results in fact reveal is the high level of competition for these workers, "Roche said.

"As the Heartbeat authors acknowledge, it is not known if they moved to other employers in the sector."

The report collected data from the records of 24,508 current employees as at July 2011, an additional 5989 employees who separated from those organisations during 2010-11 and information on 4874 new hires during the 2010-2011 financial year.