Getting more women involved in mining is the focus of a Saskatoon event this week.
“Mine Your Potential” takes place on Thursday at the Radisson Hotel.
The annual event is put on by Women in Mining and Women in Nuclear Saskatchewan.
Co-chair Anne Gent says women currently make up about 15 per cent of the workforce in the provincial mining sector and this is largely in administrative and support roles.
“We are an organization, everybody from every background in mining and nuclear is welcome to join us but we’re really trying to push for women to move into some of those more technical and leadership roles,” she says.
Gent says they also want to show women the mining industry offers something for everyone in terms of career choices.
“When you’re moving into some of the more technical or management roles, there’s a wide variety in environment, metallurgy, engineering and there’s a lot of backgrounds that come into mining. Really, whatever people are aiming for, there’s probably something that we can work with them to find.”
She adds the mining industry is no longer the blue collar and male dominated industry it has traditionally been seen as.
This year’s keynote speaker is Betty-Ann Heggie, a member of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women Hall of Fame and former senior vice-president at PotashCorp.
The event starts at 8 a.m. Thursday morning and is followed by a networking event in the evening.