Welcoming Women in Canada’s mines: what are the tools ?

26 September 2019

Women working in mines in Canada : the facts 

We all know that what matters to companies is having business results. Engaging women in the mines’ workforce may not seem the most natural thing, but it has been proven that including women in the technical and operating positions can drive profit for mining companies. 

Indeed those benefits can be explained by several inherited traits of women such as paying more attention to details, being more careful, using less their strength and more of their brains and techniques. This extra care leads to less incidents and injuries as well as fewer repair costs on machines and equipments.

Despite all, women represent only 19% of the mining workforce with a majority working in the corporate side.  

Fewer incidents, fewer injuries, and fewer repair costs – these are all important benefits to cost-conscious employers. When making gender-inclusive workplace, companies need to adapt the equipments making them more ergonomic and safe which in the end benefits a wider range of people reducing the efforts made by the employees.  

Are we doing enough for the safety of female miners in Canada?

Research has proven that many talents are driven away from the mining sector because half of the country’s workforce represented by women are not being attracted. The mining culture has not evolved well with its time and workplaces and tools have not been adapted to welcome both genders. 

Nevertheless, some mining companies found the benefit in employing women and started to put in place the means to achieve certain rate of employment with actions going from supporting the youth to study math and science to making gender inclusive workplaces, to appointing more women to senior leadership positions.

In the fight for gender equality in mining sites, Modec had a small contribution. Indeed, our clients in the mining industry were facing the problem of valves that were not operated daily and therefore not equipped with fix actuators. The operators were forced to operate them manually and sometimes for more than an hour in order to open them. It was even more difficult for the female workers that were not able to hold the same strength for as much time.

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Woman in mine in Chile operating a valve with Modec's electric portable valve actuator

The solution was to use a portable valve actuator that was able to deliver a sufficient torque for a quite long time (about one hour) while being easy to carry around from one valve to another. 

One of the most evolved countries in terms of gender equality in mines is Chile. The government is undertaking actions to attract female talents in mines and acts in many fields.The portable valve actuator was such a success in Chilean mines that the Women and Gender Equity Ministry of Antofagasta in Chile came to try and learn more about it. 

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The Women and Gender Equity Ministry of Antofagasta in Chile trying our portable valve actuator for mines 

Business results matter. And these results can be improved by engaging more women. The inclusion of women in leadership, technical and trades positions can translate to significant improvements in important business results. Companies need to adapt the workplace for women to feel integrated. Tools such as the portable valve actuators can help women being autonomous in the process of opening and closing valves.

Feel free to download four case studies to learn more about the simplest way to open and closes valves: 

Cas studies : 4 portable valve actuators applications

Olivier Ben Soussan
Olivier Ben Soussan

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