In 1969, professional women in the mining industry were few
and far between. In fact, the Northern Miner found the subject
so fascinating that it assigned Nean Allman, the newspaper's
first female reporter and geologist on staff, to do a story.
Allman said, "The editor liked my story so much that he
suggested I take the women I interviewed for lunch. The four of
us who met on that occasion had such a great time that we
decided to continue the lunches which gradually included more
and more women as more began working in the industry."
As time went by, the women organized themselves to the extent
of having a mailing list but there has always been a strong
emphasis on keeping the group informal and unstructured with
just a couple of volunteers to arrange the gatherings. Today,
with its membership consisting of more than 200
well-connected women working in all aspects of the mining
sector, the Toronto chapter of Women in Mining is a powerful
networking organization.
"It wasn't called Women in Mining in the early days." Allman
said. "At the start it was just a lunch with some of the other
women geologists in town, a chance to meet like-minded souls
since there weren't very many women in the industry and most
were relatively isolated and junior, and they never met others
across a table doing business."
Allman is now a communications consultant to the mining
industry.
Two of the four who sat down for that original lunch have since
succumbed to cancer. One of those women was Mary-Claire Ward
who became chair of Watts, Griffis & McOuat, consulting
geologists and was a very active director of the Prospectors
and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) before her untimely
death in 2004. The Mary-Claire Ward GeoScience Award was
established by PDAC in her honour.
So it is particularly appropriate that the Toronto Women in
Mining's first collective fund-raising effort is to enter a
team in the Weekend to End Breast Cancer walk. They are
tackling the offices of Canada's mining companies, consultants
and suppliers for donations to fight breast cancer. The
challenge is that mining today is still male-dominated, and is
often very quiet about its charitable works. The women are out
to change that, fueled by donations from the scions of Canadian
mining to support a dominantly female cause.
Their goal is huge. They want to raise the largest amount of
donations of any team in Toronto's Weekend to End Breast Cancer
in early September, with a target of at least $200,000. This is
one of the major annual fund-raising events for the Princess
Margaret Hospital Foundation, to support breast cancer
prevention research, treatment and care in one of Canada's
leading cancer facilities.
Besides raising a serious amount of money for a vital cause,
the women think their campaign will benefit the mining
industry. There is a looming shortage of technical and
experienced staff in the mining industry, as baby boomers begin
to retire. A 2005 study on employment in the mining sector by
the Mining Industry Training and Adjustment Council found the
industry will need to hire up to 81,000 highly skilled new
employees over the next decade.
MaryAnn Mihychuk, director, regulatory affairs at the
Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada said, "We hope
to demonstrate the mineral industry's generosity and community
awareness, and show that it's a modern, inclusive sector that
has a place for strong, independent women who can make things
happen."
Mihychuk was formerly the Industry, Trade and Mines Minister
for Manitoba and is a licensed geologist. She added, "Females
now fill over 50 percent of the classroom seats in geological
programs across Canada."
The Women in Mining team of eight will complete the
60-kilometre, two-day walk around Toronto. Team members include
Allman and Mihychuk as well as Saley Lawton and Teresa Barrett
(the last three on the staff of the Prospectors &
Developers Association of Canada), communications consultant
Kate Armstrong, Monica Ospina of the Council of Great Lakes
Governors, and mining magazine editor Jane Werniuk with her
daughter Margaret Werniuk.
The Weekend to End Breast Cancer in Toronto includes well over
5,000 walkers and raised over $17 million in donations last
year. The Women in Mining team currently sits in third place
out of 1,125 teams, with almost $90,000 in donations, as of
mid-August and is trying to get to first place ahead of the
banking, pharmaceutical and other industry specific teams.
"I believe that Women in Mining is the right group to put
together the resources of the mining industry with the
expertise of cancer researchers," adds team member Jane
Werniuk, editor of the Canadian Mining Journal who has won her
own battle with breast cancer. "This can and will happen."
To make donations to the Women in Mining for The Weekend to End
Breast Cancer contact Kate Armstrong at (416) 214-5524. To
attend a Toronto Women in Mining lunch (visiting Sudburians are
more than welcome), contact Jane Werniuk 416-510-6742.
Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant and policy analyst who writes extensively on mining issues.[email protected]
