A total of 23 individuals and four companies operating across Australia have been selected as finalists in the annual awards.
The finalists were nominated across five categories – Gender Diversity Champion, Exceptional Woman in Australian Resources, Exceptional Young Woman in Australian Resources, Outstanding Australian Tradeswoman, and Company Excellence in Diversity and Performance.
Their achievements will celebrated and winners announced at the 2015 Women in Resources National Awards presentation event to be held in Western Australia on September 24 and hosted by the state’s Chamber of Minerals and Energy.
CME CEO Reg Howard-Smith said the awards would recognise the outstanding performance of women in the sector.
“The awards celebrate both the inspirational women we have here in our sector, and the efforts of companies to improve participation of women in our workforce,” he said.
“Nationally over the past 10 years the number of women working in the resources sector has more than doubled. It is vital to keep this momentum, particularly as the sector transitions into a production phase.”
The finalists for the Gender Diversity Champion award are BHP Billiton Olympic Dam asset president Jacqui McGill; Fortescue Metals Group group manager of people Linda O’Farrell; Glencore Coal Assets Australia financial controller Michelle Lawson; and Newmont Tanami operations mining manager Tim Hewitt.
BHP senior engineer for analysis and improvement backfill Jo Barron-Perry is a finalist in both Gender Diversity Champion and Exceptional Woman in Australian Resources categories.
Her fellow finalists in the latter are Windward Resources chairman Bronwyn Barnes; Ninti Kata principal consultant Erin Woolford; Peabody Energy director of services, supply chain management Janette Hewson, Kellogg Brown and Root Ichthys project principal specialist Leonora Wehrmann; Copper Mines of Tasmania senior environmental advisor Rebecca-Lee Ritchie; and Alkane Resources’ Tomingly gold processing manager Simone Painter.
In the Exceptional Young Woman in Australian Resources category the finalists are Gekko Systems technical sales engineer Anastasia Plischka; South32 GEMCO maintenance analysis and improvement engineer Eleanor Lober; Santos senior reservoir engineer Helena Wu; Glencore senior mining engineer Hope Adams; MMG Australia human resources adviser Jennifer Kotek; Rio Tinto Iron Ore Channar production superintendent and quarry manager Kalpana Maharage; and Rio Tinto Coal Hail Creek mine project lead Sandra Newman.
Finalists in the Outstanding Australian Tradeswoman, Technician or Operator category are South32 GEMCO mining operator Jacqui Purdon; Rio Tinto Alcan Weipa crew leader Julie Stainkey; Glencore Coal fourth year electrical apprentice Madeline Brennan; Kentz Engineers and Constructors electrician Margeaux Janenko; and Theiss Global Mining plant operator Sabrina McKenzie.
Atlas Iron’s Women in Atlas program is a finalist in the Company Excellence in Diversity and Performance category, along with Newmont Mining’s Newmont Women’s Network at its Tanami operations; Santos’ Gender Equality Program; and Wesfarmers Resources, Theiss and the Salvation Army’s Oothungs in Mining Program.
The WIRNA awards are run as a partnership between the CME, the Minerals Council of Australia and its Northern Territory and Victorian branches, the Queensland Resources Council, the New South Wales Minerals Council, the South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy, and the Tasmanian Minerals and Energy Council.
