Tag Archives: diversity

ICMM members commit to more diverse, safe and inclusive mining workplaces

Careers in mining, Mining people, , , , , ,

ICMM has announced a collective goal to drive more diverse, safe and inclusive mining workplaces by establishing a benchmark on gender representation and equality in the industry, with progress towards this goal being reported in a biennial performance report commencing 2026.

ICMM has also published a set of practical tools to support improved performance on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and a roadmap to help accelerate meaningful progress across the wider industry.

In 2023, ICMM published a DEI Position Statement in which its members committed to four actions by the end of 2024. This included developing a roadmap outlining key steps being taken on DEI, to set individual and collective goals, to disclose aggregated performance against these goals and encourage wider collaboration to address shared challenges.

The benchmark, focused initially on gender, will enable members to track their progress in implementing equitable practices in hiring, pay and investment in training. ICMM will publish a biennial report on members’ performance, offering transparency and accountability for companies and stakeholders with the overall aim of improved performance on DEI across the wider industry.

To support mining companies embed DEI policies and practices into their strategies and operations, ICMM has developed six practical tools. These resources provide guidance on:

  • Using inclusive language;
  • Integrating DEI in business strategy and governance;
  • Designing inclusive workplaces;
  • Addressing workplace psychological and psychosocial safety;
  • Recognising local nuances and adopting inclusive language; and
  • Using a maturity matrix to assess progress.

Underpinning this work is a DEI roadmap which outlines the steps already taken by ICMM and its members, sets out future milestones towards achieving our DEI aspirations and aims to inspire other companies to also take positive DEI action.

Danielle Martin, Director of Social Performance and Co-COO, ICMM, said: “Our collective goal, tools for DEI and our DEI roadmap reflect a shared determination to build a mining sector that is not only more equitable but also a better place to work. We recognise that achieving meaningful progress will take time, effort and deliberate endeavour. Establishing benchmarks will help companies and stakeholders understand what good looks like and where improvement is required. They’ll provide inspiration for companies to meet or exceed them and ensure accountability, with members’ progress against the benchmarks published in a biennial report. I hope this goal, along with the tools and roadmap, encourage others to join this effort to drive the change we so urgently need.”

Jonathan Price, CEO, Teck Resources, said: “No one should experience harassment, discrimination or unsafe conditions in the workplace. Together, we must eliminate these harmful behaviours and foster a truly diverse and psychologically safe environment. This is not just the right thing to do – it is essential for attracting and retaining the talent our industry needs for the future. I am proud of the momentum ICMM members have catalysed on strengthening diversity and inclusion, and of the progress we can make when we collaborate on the critical challenges facing our industry. While there remains work to do, this commitment reflects the recognition within the mining industry that real progress depends on humility, collaboration and sustained action.”

IMARC 2022 to tackle the mining sector’s gender divide

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Closing the gender gap in mining is not only a matter of equity, it also makes business sense, according to five Australian experts who will be addressing the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) in Sydney in November.

As a whole, the mining industry is trying to address the under-representation of women in mining. Statistics highlighted by WIMnet (Women in Mining) NSW shows that women make up less than 20% of the mining workforce. Unfortunately, at an executive level it gets worse, with 6.7% of mining CEOs being female, compared with the national average of 19.4%.

IMARC organises say it will shine a light on the incredible contribution women bring to the mining industry, hosting a three-day event that will feature 111 female speakers.

Reflecting on the gender transformation sweeping the industry, Chair of WIMnet NSW, Lucy McClean, believes opening the door to more women represents an enormous opportunity for the industry to capitialise on the proven benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce.

“The statistics are very clear, and they tell us that workplace diversity creates more inclusive supporting work environments, enhances teamwork, makes us more effective in service delivery as well as increasing productivity,” she says.

MinterEllison Partner and Head of Perth’s Workplace Law team, Kathy Reid, says: “We need to increase the presence of women in mining, but the industry is facing significant challenges and there’s not one easy answer. Improving mining for women will require significant and consistent cultural shifts across the industry but getting there will be difficult.”

Reid refers to this issue as the chicken and the egg conundrum: “You can’t really make women feel more comfortable in the mining industry until you’ve got greater numbers, but you can’t get greater numbers unless you make them feel more comfortable.”

METS Ignited General Manager, Kylah Morrison, agrees some great strides have been made to make mining more appealing to women, highlighting the power of leveraging tech and innovation.

“Equipment manufacturers are leading the way by breaking down barriers to entry, from simple things like hi-vis gear that is made for women, to major capital investments in heavy equipment,” she said. “Rather than the traditional burly bloke on the frontline, maybe it’s a remotely managed machine, which adds even more to the potential inclusiveness of mining.”

“Inclusivity is important, and that’s where innovation and technology is really exciting because it does make it more of an even playing field.”

AusIMM Independent Consultant, Giulia Savio, says it is clear the mining industry recognises the need to make the workplace more inviting for women, not just by moving away from a “male-only” culture, but by using innovation to create new opportunities in rewarding, highly paid and long-term careers.

However, Savio says the trend within the industry is positive, and applauds the fact that IMARC 2022 is taking a strong focus on the development of female leadership in the sector, and will feature record numbers of female delegates, speakers and panellists.

“We’re not there yet,” she says. “To have true diversity and to realise the value of that diversity, you need inclusivity. In order to improve the industry, leaders need to look at making the sector more friendly and inviting for all. This might mean greater diversity in teams, equipment that can be used by someone with a disability, or more opportunities for flexibility in office based or site-based roles.”

Agnico Eagle Vice President of Corporate Affairs in Australia, John Landmark, echoes this sentiment, outlining the need to tap into a far broader spectrum of talent to shift the idea of the industry being male dominated to being an industry that is in touch with society’s expectations.

“We’ve got to change this, and we’ve got to get this right,” Landmark said. “We must make the workplace more attractive for women and society as a whole.

“I am so excited that these challenges are such a major focus at IMARC and gives us an opportunity to improve the industry for everyone. The ideal workplace is where everyone can be themselves and contribute to the team environment – people of all diverse backgrounds and makeups.

“Frankly, if you make the industry more attractive to women, you improve the industry for all.”

IMARC, organisers say, is the most significant in-person gathering of Australian and international mining and resources representatives in almost three years and is a key forum to addressing the most challenging issues facing the industry. The conference will be held November 2-4 at the Sydney International Convention Centre and will feature over 450 speakers across six concurrent conferences covering the energy transition, rising costs, skills shortages, diversity within the resources sector and more.

International Mining is a media sponsor of IMARC 2022

The top four business problems the mining industry needs to solve today

Automation, Environmental, IoT, Mineral processing, Mining equipment, Mining events, Mining services, Mining software, Power supply for mines, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , , , ,

Ahead of her appearance at the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) Online, conference organisers spoke with Michelle Ash, CEO of Dassault Systèmes’ GEOVIA division, to get her thoughts on some of the biggest problems the mining industry needs to solve today, and what the mining industry can learn from other industries to gain a competitive advantage.

IMARC: What aspects should mining companies pay attention to in order to prepare for (and accelerate) the industry transformation to a more sustainable future?

MA: The biggest challenge to the mining industry today and in the future is changing opinions, changing expectations of society, of people, and of citizens. Our performance as an industry and the rate at which societies’ expectations are changing is actually widening. This does not mean we are not transforming. As an industry, we are adopting new technology, innovating and doing things differently; however, society’s expectations of us as an industry are so much higher than in previous generations. This is simply the result of seeing ongoing dramatic change in other sectors and expecting the mining sector to change as fast and as radically. This means that not only do we need to increase our rate of transformation, we also need to fundamentally rethink some of our processes.

This translates into the need to adopt completely new ways of working, in order to remain relevant to the community and the emerging workforce. Mining companies need to increase the rate at which they adopt technologies that enable mobility and collaboration to solve problems in unique and transparent ways. These platforms and applications make working collaboratively from anywhere seamless. Mining businesses must also ensure their workforce build new skills, such as high voltage electrical, data science and analytics, robotics, instrumentation in order to attract young talent and remain competitive employers.

IMARC: What are the major business problems the industry needs to solve today?

MA: For me, there are four major problems we need to solve as an industry:

  • Global orebody intelligence: We need to be able to find orebodies faster, cheaper and more completely. We can use satellite imaging to detect orebodies and use physical geospatial and hyperspectral technologies to provide additional data to a geologist;
  • Automation and electrification: We need to understand performance and optimise performance in real time and optimise planning in real time;
  • Precision extraction: We need to be even more precise in extracting the metal that we are interested in without creating excessive waste and subsequently being able to process the metal efficiently. This means using digital twins to create simulations and what-if scenarios before building in real life with sensors in place for analytics. This not only minimises risk but also reduces errors, and waste; and
  • Creation of social value: We need to better use technology to create and distribute value to our communities.

Mining companies’ real competitive advantage is the speed at which they can adopt technology into their business that solves a business problem, while continuing to create value to society. This is where mining organisations need to look at solutions that are already available in other industries and their ecosystem of competition and collaboration in order to build a sustainable future.

IMARC: What lessons can the mining industry learn from other industries for their competitive advantage?

MA: The mining industry can learn from aircraft and automotive industries; two industries which experienced something similar in the last quarter of the last century. Both industries have fundamentally changed from leveraging emerging technology of the time and adopting radically different ways of doing things.

For example, in the aircraft industry, technology has helped in a 91% reduction in development time, 71% reduction in labour costs, 90% reduction in redesign and dramatically reduced design and production flaws, mismatches, and associated errors.

The auto industry has also developed into a segmented network in the last 50 years. For example, no car company makes windshields or rear-view-mirrors anymore – they are always purchased from windshield makers, and rear-view-mirror makers, respectively. This division of labour across the automotive ecosystem enables suppliers to be agile and innovative. This also means that auto-parts can be quickly and easily sourced, and suppliers empowered to design and produce new parts quickly and efficiently.

IMARC: How can the industry attract younger people and sustain diversity?

MA: The only question mining companies need to consider – how do I rapidly change the way we work to enable greater inclusivity, more remote working, whilst also adding value to our communities?

In most of the developed countries, the mining sector has a mature and ageing workforce. For example, in Russia and Australia, three quarters of the workforce will be retiring in the next 15 years. The younger generation does not see mining in the same way. In addition, the younger generation, being digital natives, are also more interested in automation jobs, the robotics jobs, the remote operating centre jobs, or working with drones. This means the sector has to evolve much more rapidly and incorporate new technology and new ways of working with some of this great equipment to solve problems and work in fundamentally different ways in order to attract the younger generation. The younger generation is much more collaborative, much more eager to talk about the issues that they see and find solutions.

Michelle Ash will be sharing further insights on ‘Shaping the Sustainable Future of Mining’ during her presentation at IMARC Online on November 25.

BHP to lead from the front on sourcing, diversity, inclusion, climate change

Environmental, Equipment maintenance, Explosives and blasting, Mining consumables, Mining equipment, Mining events, Mining industry recognition, Mining maintenance, Mining services, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , , ,

BHP’s Group Procurement Officer, Sundeep Singh, took to the IMARC stage this week to talk about the major miner’s experience in responsible sourcing, diversity and inclusion, and climate change.

He said taking responsibility in all of these areas was not only right, but good for shareholders and business, going on to provide several examples of how the company was displaying industry leadership in these spaces.

Among the initiatives mentioned by Singh at the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC), in Melbourne, was the company’s goal to be gender-balanced by 2025. Three years ago when the company made this pledge, women made up 17.6% of its workforce. Today, that number has climbed to 24.5%.

Data collected by BHP shows more inclusive and diverse teams outperform other teams on safety, productivity and culture. Highlighted in this is an up to 67% lower injury rate, 11% better adherence to schedule and 28% lower unplanned absence.

The company has gone further than this, working with other suppliers like ESS Compass, Blackwoods and Komatsu to make sure the machines it uses, the clothes employees wear, the food they eat and the camps they live in are more inclusive, he said.

“Another example is the work that we have done with Kal Tire, a tyre management and fitment organisation that supplies to our Spence operation in Chile. This job requires physical strength, which has been historically restricted to larger men,” he said.

BHP worked with Kal Tire to implement a program that trained women to complete the task and also implemented a zero weight arm. This saves people lifting a torqueing tool that can weigh around 20 kg by simply holding the tool in position when torqueing each bolt, according to Singh.

“The program eliminated the need for physical strength as a pre-requisite for the role, making it not only safer, faster but also more inclusive,” he said.

On the issue of climate change, Singh talked up the company’s progress, highlighting the company’s world-first tender earlier this year for LNG-powered vessels for its maritime transport operations as it works towards a goal of net-zero operational emissions by 2050.

Singh said BHP is working with its suppliers and customers to reduce emissions from the transportation, processing and use of its products.

“Ambitious emissions targets will only be achieved by a supply chain that allows us to collaborate with partners like Adelaide-based Voltra who last year helped to develop the world’s first electric UTE, ahead of Tesla,” he said.

“This is a welcome addition to a growing fleet of light electric vehicles that will “significantly reduce our category 1 emissions”, he said.

When it came to ethical sourcing, he said BHP is continually reviewing and assessing its supply chain, applying the framework established through its own Human Rights Centre of Excellence and Global Contract Management System.

“No-one wants to work with unethical suppliers,” he said. “Having high-risk partners is ultimately expensive for everyone and represents significant exposures. Human Rights violations are the furthest anyone could possibly be from shared value.”

Through the system, BHP knows 96% of its direct suppliers are concentrated in 10 countries, Singh said.

Along these lines, last month BHP partnered with Dyno Nobel to invest in a blast technology research program to improve the safety, productivity and sustainability of its Australia operations.

As well as researching ways to lift safety through reduced nitrous oxide fumes that result from blasting and driving productivity from improved fragmentation via differential energy blasts, this partnership represents a joint commitment to eradicate the use of palm oil in the explosive manufacturing process, according to Singh.

“And, as you may know, a recent and rapid increase in palm oil production, has resulted in an increase in deforestation – destroying habitats, displacing local communities and contributing to climate change,” he said.

“As a part of our agreement, Dyno Nobel will only use certified sustainable raw materials and products. If they use forestry-based products, including palm oil, they will give us information on the country and company of origin, and evidence that they are certified sustainable.”

If palm oil is included, Dyno Nobel will include a timeline and plan for its replacement with an alternative product, he added.

While Singh acknowledged that, in the past, BHP didn’t always get it right with its suppliers and “their experience has been varied”, he did say the company is now focused much more on seeking to establish a supplier relationship model based on sustainable mutual commercial value built on long lasting partnerships that unlock value for all of its businesses.

BHP’s supply chain spans 60 countries, 10,000 partners with an annual spend of $20 billion across its capital and operating expenses portfolio in its 2019 financial year. It sourced 215,000 different types of material and equipment for its Australian operations alone in that year.