More Women Needed in the Mining Sector

Women in Mining Panel - OMA Photo by Peter McBride

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

Four female employees from Hemlo Mines brought their unique perspective to a recent Ontario Mining Association conference session “How to make the mining workplace more feminine friendly.”

Aileen Pajunen, Employee Relations Superintendent; Geraldine Colbourne, a level-one production miner with 11 years experience working underground; Deborah Hanson, who has worked underground in the shaft and services area for 18 years; and, Allison Craig, a mining engineer currently working as an underground supervisor; all shared their work experiences, ambitions, frustrations, successes and long term goals with participants in the OMA “Demographics, Global Markets and Future Workforce” conference.

The panel session was preceded by OMA President Chris Hodgson and Ryan Montpellier, Executive Director of the Mining Industry Human Resource Council (MiHR). Hodgson reminded the group that, on the national level, mining is looking for an estimated 92,000 new employees over the next decade.

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