At the end of 2019, 13% of our global workforce was represented by women, flat from 2018 levels. Representation ranges across geographies with a high of 19% in North America to a low of 7% in Indonesia, where we are faced with unique challenges.

We remain short of achieving our global target of 15% women representation in the global workforce. Women made up 21% of our global hires in 2019, helping to increase the female share of our workforce over its current level at 13%. However, the 2019 employee attrition rates among women (12%) remained higher than men (8%), demonstrating the challenge of not only attracting talented women into our organization, but also ensuring appropriate employee engagement, inclusion and career development efforts in order to retain our female employee talent.

In 2019, we launched a global initiative to further strengthen our focus on inclusion and diversity in the workplace. Our initial focus areas include executive training and various human resource processes, including identifying more diverse applicant pools and measuring trends.

Americas 

• Our El Abra operation implemented Chile’s voluntary gender equality and work-life balance ordinance to enhance gender equality in the workplace through various measures such as equal pay review, training employees on managing unconscious bias, providing personal protective equipment designed specifically for women, inclusive language and graphics in formal communications, and appropriate representation on hiring panels. A third-party audit of the management system was conducted in 2019, and the certification was awarded in 2020, making El Abra the first private mining company to receive this certification in Chile.

Indonesia

• At PT-FI, women comprise the majority of our trained MineGem workforce, running some of the most advanced robotic haulage technology in the PT-FI underground mines. Of our 51 remote equipment operators, 30 are women – half of which are Papuan women. Recruiting women into this role has provided additional opportunities as Indonesian law prohibits women from working in underground mines. With the use of this technology, PT-FI employees safely operate equipment hundreds of feet underground while working from an office building on the surface. The results have been positive, with women operators achieving higher productivity rates than their male colleagues.

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