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MINERALS INDUSTRY EDUCATION AND TRAINING II

Figure 6: Proportion of female delegates attending Flotation,
Comminution and Process Mineralogy conferences by sector

50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
% Female % Female % Female
academic industry
Flotation 15 Comminution 14 Process Mineralogy 14

of female mining engineering and mineral processing students, and the
retention of women in the mining industry. While considering the mining
industry as a whole and Australia only, the report states that 18% of the
workforce in the sector is female, with just 3% of on-site workers being
women. The value of 18% is broadly in line with values of female mineral
processing graduates and conference delegates, however it must be
considered that this is for the Australian mining sector overall, including
corporate and technical roles.

Of particular note in the report is the distribution of workers across age
groupings, reproduced in Figure 7. Here, it can be seen that the 25-34 age
group provides a third of the female mining sector employees, following
which there is a significant drop-off. For men, on the other hand, there
is a normal distribution of employees by age group, with the greatest
contribution from the 35-44 age bracket. The differences in the distribution
of female mining workers compared to male workers suggest that women
attracted into the industry tend to leave beyond the age of 34. This is likely
to be linked to caring responsibilities. The report suggests that lack of

Meeting the Challenges of a
164 Section 4
Changing World