Women are beginning to make their mark in mining

In the past few decades, women have entered and are excelling at most “male-dominated” fields. Mining is one of them, with men holding more than 90 % of the senior executive positions. Thankfully that’s starting to change, as retiring employees help open the $1 trillion industry’s door to female successors.

Jacqui McGill, a mining industry veteran of more than 20 years, working at BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) told Bloomberg that she recently got an email from her team in Queensland’s Bowen Basin. The email informed her that their output delays were down 75 % in a year. What made her happier was the fact that every single person on the e-mail had a woman in a production role.

U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez said in an interview last month that industries are losing out on great talent. Some companies are however, now making an effort in the direction.  Canada’s Goldcorp Inc. (GG) now provides female-only leadership training and South Africa’s Lonmin Plc (LMI), offers scholarship to women. The second-biggest miner, London-based Rio Tinto Group (RIO), currently aims at making 20 % of its senior managers female by 2015.

James Hodgins>

Laura Tyler, asset president for BHP’s Cannington mine in Australia, the world’s largest silver and lead operation, believes that the biggest roadblock in the way gender equality in the industry is the perception women have of the field. Tyler told Bloomberg “My father was particularly horrified when I told him I was going into mining, and I grew up on the edge of the Lancashire coalfields.” She currently hires the same number of male and female graduates at the mine.

According to the website, women currently occupy almost 8% of board positions and 12 % of management posts in the industry. The executive director at Carleton University’s Center for Women in Politics and Public Leadership, Clare Beckton, says, “There’s a significant correlation between bottom line profit and how well a company does and having more women and diversity in your senior roles.”

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Bloomberg

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-22/bhp-shows-women-becoming-more-common-in-mining-industry.html