Tag Archives: IMARC 2022

Miners need to address workplace culture, diversity issues, IMARC panel says

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There has been keen focus on workplace culture and diversity on the final day of the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) in Sydney, Australia.

Throughout the conference, mining leaders have acknowledged that if the industry does not act now to fix and change the culture, they will not be able to attract the staff required for the new resources boom.

Chief People Office at IGO, Sam Retallack, told the conference: “We as industry have broken the psychological contract of trust that we have with the community. We are seen as a cause of climate change, not as a solution. We are seen as an unsafe workplace for females, we are seen as inflexible with our rostering and that you must commit to FIFO work. It’s not a particularly attractive proposition for new workers.”

Danielle Martin, Director of Social Performance at ICMM, spoke to the substantial issues facing the industry as workforce skills change and evolve.

“The competition for talent will be tricky for mining because the skills in many cases are less specific to mining and are applicable across other sectors,” Martin said. “Because of the culture and perception of mining, it is a less attractive industry for many workers who could work in other industries.”

All is not lost, however. Stuart Jenner, General Manager of Capability and Culture at Gold Road Resources, reflected on the cultural issues the Australian Defence Force faced 20 years ago. Changes to workplace culture will likely lead to an increase in the recruitment of new staff and the retention of key talent as the competition for skills intensifies, he argued.

Jenner said the Defence Force “recreated its brand and aligned it with its purpose and mining needs to do the same”.

He added: “We need to be upfront, honest and transparent to establish that purpose. The Defence Force pays nowhere near what the mining industry does but because of their purpose, they have a huge amount of success in attracting talent.”

There is a realisation from the sector the industry must act now and push for the acknowledgment that these issues need to be addressed from the top down.

Gavin Wood, Chief Information Officer at Newcrest Mining, explained to the delegates at IMARC the work the company is doing to change culture with their existing workforce.

Wood said many of its existing staff grew up in mining areas and communities and the company needed to give them the skills to interact with other aspects of business and by virtue society.

“If we do not give them these skills the culture will not change,” he said.

Over the three-day conference, mining leaders from across the globe have challenged the current standard of culture within the sector and have discussed ways to make the industry safer for all.

IMARC panel tackles decarbonisation need and rising power costs dilemma

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The second day of the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC), in Sydney, Australia, has put a spotlight on the industry’s response to ESG and energy transition.

The keynote address was a panel discussion focusing on energy transition and decarbonisation. The panel was made up of global heavyweights from the energy, mining, infrastructure and digital sectors.

Setting the scene, David Solsky, Vice President Sustainability Software Solutions at IBM, said: “We are on the verge of the biggest transformation of the global economy in a century.”

Sarah Barker, Head of Climate Risk Governance at Minter Ellison, added to this, saying: “What is certain is that the energy transition is going to happen. What is unknown is when or how. We do know, however, transitions are not linear; they tend to be bumpy.”

Talking to the mammoth task ahead, Sue Brown, Executive Group Director Sustainability at Worley, said: “The scale of investment needed in energy infrastructure alone will need to increase four or five times every year for the next 20 to 30 years.”

However, the transition comes with risk warns Michael van Maanen, Executive General Manager, Corporate, Government and Community at Whitehaven Coal. Maanen understands the social and economic imperative of transitioning to green and renewable energy but believes the transition must not come at the expense of exponentially higher power prices.

“Investors are accelerating the transition much faster than customers can bear and that’s problematic,” he said.

Eng. Suliman Bin Khaled Almazroua, CEO of the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program, explained how Saudi Arabia is tackling energy costs amid their rapid transition to renewable and green energy.

“We have added sustainability to our equation when determining risk in new projects,” he said. “What we have found is that by doing that we are creating long-term value for companies who want to invest new projects.”

Over the three-day conference from November 2-4, delegates at IMARC have discussed how to best approach energy transition and the need to decarbonise, using the forum to determine global best practices and to explore new technologies that can with the transition.

International Mining is a media sponsor of IMARC

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

Industry leaders to discuss mining’s sustainable future at IMARC

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A greener future will require more mining than ever before, meaning collaboration and the adoption of new technologies across the industry’s entire value chain is no longer an option, but a necessity, organisers of the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) say.

This will be among the key challenges being addressed by industry leaders and innovators at the conference, due to take place on November 2-4, in Sydney, Australia.

According to key players in mining equipment, technology and services (METS) space, who will be speaking at the forum, there’s an urgent need for the industry to dramatically increase its uptake of sustainable technologies.

AspenTech Vice President and General Manager of Metals and Mining, Jeannette McGill, says not being at the cutting edge of available technology can be risky for mining companies.

“Technology is mandatory as it underwrites the future for mines, especially the ones mining lower-grade metals,” she said. “It’s these technologies that are going to allow us to mine and process more efficiently and allow us to have less impact on the environment.

“We can be more robust in how we push out the technologies into the market, but the constraints are around a skills base to absorb it, but also the adoption of technologies doesn’t come without a cost.”

Paul Berkovic, Chief Commercial Officer at I4 Mining by Rayven, agrees initially some technologies are hard to adopt but will eventually have an extremely significant impact on productivity, safety and in meeting demand for critical minerals vital to future energy solutions, including solar panels and wind farms.

“Competitively, it will be unavoidable, but there will also be huge environmental benefits to the adoption of this technology which consumers should understand because mining is not going anywhere,” Berkovic said. “It’s a really important part of our economy but how do we make it a more friendly part of the economy than it currently is perceived as?”

Ethically-conscious consumers are one of the major driving forces behind the mining sector’s transition, according to METS Ignited General Manager, Kylah Morrison, who says they are more influential on the industry than ever before thanks to the pressure they put on end-user manufacturers.

“You’re seeing a lot of those end users, which maybe had two or three steps before the raw materials got to them, starting to have to take responsibility for what those interim steps are and make them more secure, so we’re seeing miners have a more direct relationships with end users,” Morrison said.

“Fortunately, with data and computing power, we can offer that transparency. Apple, for example, could say to the consumer who’s purchasing an iPhone or an iPad: ‘we know for sure that we’re providing a carbon neutral or low carbon product’.”

With that community influence in mind, it’s also the responsibility of mining companies around the world to ensure they are engaging these technologies in a thoughtful way, rather than making reactionary decisions to engage in short-term solutions that may not be manageable in the future.

“The mining space has been at the vanguard of technology to a certain extent,” Berkovic said. “It’s had self-driving vehicles and all sorts for 20-30 years now, but what is happening now is a whole lot of these new novel technologies are coming out but they’re being adopted in a sort of ‘point and shoot’ manner,” Berkovic said.

IMARC Conference Director, Sherene Asnasyous, says with such a diverse cross section of the mining and resources industry attending, the event is a unique opportunity for collaboration to address evolving challenges such as this.

“IMARC will shine a spotlight on the role the METS sector is taking in driving the global energy transition, how it is bringing innovation to the exploration and development of new future-facing resources, and how it is helping balance the needs of the developed and the developing world, as well as local communities and environments, in the resource transition,” Asnasyous said.

“At its core, IMARC creates a global conversation and is all about the business of mining and resources, providing extensive opportunities for collaboration, knowledge sharing and cross-sector engagement to help drive a smarter, more productive industry of the future.”

International Mining is a media sponsor of IMARC, in Sydney, Australia