Precious resources

The industry is developing a new generation of women leaders

Precious resources

It’s been a long, hard slog for the female leaders who have persisted and risen to the top of the mining industry. Their tenacity is slowly but irrevocably changing the face of SA mining. Two major mining companies are currently run by female CEOs, with Nombasa Tsengwa in charge at Exxaro Resources and Mpumi Zikalala at Kumba Iron Ore. However, the talent pool of women in managerial mining roles remains small, so high-profile leaders are at risk of becoming overextended or head-hunted.

Every female leader who exits SA mining is a loss for gender transformation and for the industry. One prominent example is Natascha Viljoen, the first female CEO of Anglo American Platinum, who said she wasn’t looking to leave but was offered a top job in the US she couldn’t refuse – COO at Newmont Corporation, the world’s leading gold mining company. Since early 2024, she has been officially responsible for managing more than 25 000 Newmont employees as well as six mining operations with an integrated value chain and downstream processing.

Another prominent woman, Nolitha Fakude (chair of Anglo American South Africa) became the first female president of the Minerals Council South Africa (MCSA) in its 130-year history. Her three-year tenure ended in 2024 and remained in female hands when Exxaro’s Tsengwa was elected as her successor, joined by Kumba’s Zikalala as one of the vice-presidents.

Historically, women in the male-dominated mining industry have often felt frustrated (and many leave the industry) because there aren’t enough opportunities to grow their careers, and they tend to reach a ceiling. ‘There simply aren’t enough senior, executive or C-suite roles for women in our industry, and many company boards still don’t have the gender diversity needed for true growth,’ says Raksha Naidoo, chairperson of NPO Women in Mining SA (WiMSA). ‘If no investment is made into the technical and professional development of women, they won’t be ready should the opportunity even arise. The gender gap is real. Therefore, it’s the duty of those women who do make it into positions of leadership to grant opportunities to other women.’

That’s precisely why WiMSA provides networking, training and mentoring opportunities for women already working in the industry or wanting to enter. The organisation has also developed a career booklet that showcases the diverse career options available in mining to attract girls and young women to the industry. The real-life stories range from women working in mining business management, legal and HR; an exploration engineer;metallurgist; and a drilling and winch operator;to an underground production shift boss and mine manager.

Over the years, the female visibility in mining has improved as mining companies make an effort to be more gender inclusive. ‘Through concerted programmes to employ women, the industry has an estimated 90 300 women working in the sector, representing 19% of the total full-time workforce compared to 30 000 in 2019,’ says Boitumelo Nkomo, Women in Mining (WiM) project specialist at the MCSA. She says much has happened since the country allowed women underground in 1996. ‘In our annual WiM Heroes recognition events, launched in 2020, our female colleagues are making their presence felt and making a difference across all vertical structures of the mining industry in South Africa.

‘The focus continues to be on breaking stereotypes, unmasking unconscious bias and support of broader interventions in the sector to fight gender-based violence. This is a battle we must win.’

In terms of gender visibility, Anglo American’s SA website is a good example, as it features three female and two male employees next to a child of no specific gender. While this may not seem like a big win for women, it’s this type of visibility that helps break stereotypes (such as ‘mining is not a career for women’) and has a positive role model effect for girls (‘if you see it, you can be it’). It’s all part of gender mainstreaming – including women at all levels of an organisation and an industry to provide equal opportunities, as well as broaden and diversify the existing talent pool.

‘We believe that diversity, equity and inclusion are important to our success,’ says Themba Nkosi, chief people and culture officer at Sibanye-Stillwater. In 2020, company CEO Neal Froneman was elected to head the WiM portfolio at the MCSA, where he acted as a women in mining champion and leveraged his influence to increase female participation in the industry.

‘He believes excellence knows no gender boundaries,’ says Nkosi. ‘The following year, our WiM chapter launched Women’s Voice workshops to cultivate a supportive company culture that guides, mentors and trains women across all business levels.’ Nkosi describes these as two-day self-insight workshops that equip women with empowerment tools and create a supportive network for those with similar experiences. ‘Participants have reported gaining better self-awareness, feeling heard and being better equipped to address daily challenges,’ he says. All feedback is reviewed to improve the workplace experience for women.

Sibanye-Stillwater’s initiatives are informed by the MCSA, which has come up with a roadmap to drive the representation and development of women in SA mining. Based on its 2020 white paper on women in mining, the council clearly outlines foundational measures for member companies to implement, namely to reaffirm zero tolerance for gender-based violence and femicide; develop gender diversity and inclusion policies; provide reporting systems for gender diversity issues; initiate unconscious bias training to transform culture; deploy ongoing company-wide pulse check surveys; build an inclusive physical environment; and put appropriate personal protection equipment in place.

A dashboard on the MCSA website tracks how member companies are progressing towards the targets set out in the strategy. ‘The dashboard is available to the public and provides a snapshot of the state of women in mining, based on the key metrics measured,’ says Nkomo.

‘Member companies have access to more detailed data, which they use to inform their internal policies, operations and targets to align with the WiM initiative’s strategic goals and their overall company imperatives.’

Setting such goals with key performance indicators is critical in addressing the challenges that women in mining face, especially those that are difficult to measure (such as unconscious bias and culture). In 2022, Gold Fields conducted an independent expert review into workplace culture, in which 50% of the respondents said they had experienced harmful behaviour at work in the past five years, such as bullying, sexual discrimination and racism. The company made these alarming findings public, using them to implement preventative measures and a more inclusive, respectful culture (the ‘Gold Fields Way’).

‘In my opinion, company culture is everything and must be driven from the top down,’ says WiMSA’s Naidoo. ‘In the organisation that I lead, a huge daily priority is to foster a culture that supports and enables everyone to be the best version of themselves. A truly inclusive culture is free of all forms of bias or prejudices and embraces employees for who they are. In order to create it, leadership must look holistically at the business and begin by introspection – asking “who are we as leaders? What are we trying to achieve? How and why are our teams important?”. And then we must build and sustain the right environment and culture, and we must live it every day.’

Creating a conducive culture, together with the other foundational measures identified by the MCSA, will go a long way towards developing – and retaining – the next generation of female leaders in SA mining.

By Silke Colquhoun
Image: Gallo/Getty Images