Lydia loves her career in mining, but very few of her role models look like her

Lydia Gentle has loved every minute of the 17 years she has spent working in the resources sector.

Key points:

• One in five workers in Queensland’s resource industry are now women, up from 6 per cent in 2006
• The sector is still far from the Queensland Resource Council’s target of 30 per cent female labor force participation by 2026
• Not everyone agrees that targets are the solution to achieving a diverse workforce

But it’s not easy cutting his teeth in a male-dominated industry.

“When I started, even when I was at university, I was probably one of the few women out of over 100 men,” Ms Gentle said.

“I didn’t realize it was a male-dominated industry when I started studying, but I learned it very quickly.”

She said the lack of visibility of women in the industry, especially in leadership positions, made her feel out of place.

“I don’t really have any female role models I can respect,” she said.

“It’s very difficult to be what you can’t see.

Ms Gentle said the lack of women in industry leadership initially made her question her career choices.(Provided: BHP)

“I did question myself and many times before in my career I thought, ‘Am I really cut out for this?’.”

Ms. Gentle has reached the pinnacle of her field, working as a maintenance manager at BHP’s Peak Downs Mine in Bowen Basin, Queensland.

She says she wants to use her experience to inspire other women and lift them through the ranks.

“Now I’m trying to do a lot of things to encourage more women into the mining and resources profession because it’s a very rewarding career,” she said.

“I think we really need to champion that women can be fantastic leaders.”

‘Took a long time’

There has been a marked increase in female workforce participation in the resources sector since Lydia Gentle started.

From 2006 to 2022, it has increased from six per cent to 20 per cent in Queensland, according to the Queensland Resources Council (QRC).

There has been a significant increase in the number of women working in the resource industry since Lydia Gentle started her career.(Rural ABC: Ashleigh Bagshaw)

But for some industries, progress is too slow.

Joanne Bergamin is director of communications at Queensland vanadium mining company QEM Limited.

Bergamin recently organized a panel exploring women’s leadership in the resource sector at the Queensland Mining and Engineering Exhibition.

“The industry itself has set targets and it took 15 years to get to where we are now at 20 percent,” he said.

“So, it took a long time to achieve this.”

Nearly 7,000 women are directly employed in Queensland’s $84.3 billion resource sector, according to QRC.

But one in five is still below the QRC target of 30 percent female participation by 2026.

Tanya Cambetis, supervisor of the Zinc Assets Operational Control Center at Glencore Mount Isa Mines, believes more needs to be done.

Tanya Cambetis said increasing diversity in the mining industry should not only reach the target.(Rural ABC: Ashleigh Bagshaw)

“I don’t know personally that targeting is the right way to do it,” he said.

Cambetis said companies should take practical steps to identify potential leaders within their organizations.

“It’s important for businesses to identify their succession plans [for leadership] and what is on their development path,” he said.

“It’s important for businesses to identify if they have women in their businesses who would make good leaders.”

Speaking from her own experience, Cambetis said that the visibility of women leaders in the industry is important.

“I’m very lucky to have a female underground mine manager, who is really inspiring, but she must be in a league that’s almost alone,” he said.

“They’re not up there with the guys.

“But I mean, that’s why we do what we do, so we can see women getting the right to be promoted to those senior roles.”

Environmental problems one barrier

As resource companies focus on attracting more young workers, Cambetis says environmental concerns are a big factor putting off some job candidates.

“According to me [concerns around] the environment has the potential to be a barrier to recruiting every young person these days,” he said.

In the recently released State of the Environment Report, climate change and mining are among the central issues highlighted.

Cambetis said he hoped the national push to build a more environmentally conscious resource industry would offer young people more incentives.

“They have green targets and emission targets set in their companies, they want to be greener, they change their policies,” he said.

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