Sonia Scarselli on mentors, AI and working with communities
- 6 October 2025
Transparency, technology and talent nurturing are going to become more important differentiators for exploration and mining companies trying to navigate an increasingly complex industry investment and geopolitical landscape, according to Endeavour Mining’s Sonia Scarselli.
Scarselli joined West Africa’s largest gold producer last year as executive vice president exploration from BHP, where she held a similar role.
Recognised as one of the 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining for 2024, the geologist who started her career in the oil industry says the presence and influence of women in the industry continues to expand. Endeavour Mining, which operates five mines in West Africa and is building towards 1.5 million ounces a year gold production by 2030, has good female representation at executive management and board level and above-average participation in its circa-5130-strong workforce.
More broadly the trend means mining is gaining better access to a rich talent pool it has historically struggled to engage with.
Scarselli says progress means more women mentors for incoming industry talent, which she strongly advocated on a call ahead of her participation in this year’s Resourcing Tomorrow conference in London from December 2-4.
Scarselli says many women enter the industry without a clear view of what it will take to speed career advancement and build on their capabilities. She believes more tailored career planning and development is needed. “Having something more fit for the person is important. A lot of discussions are still around, if you want to do this next step you have to do this for five years. And I think everyone learns in different ways and there [are opportunities] there to progress much faster,” she says.
“Mentoring has to be part of the development program. It can’t be done on an ad-hoc basis because when it is done on an ad-hoc basis it doesn’t add value.
“You can work with your mentor to identify what [your] development path looks like.
“If I had a mentor in my first couple of years of my career I probably would have done different things and taken a different path. I would have pushed for a different type of role and different type of development. It didn’t happen until many years after and that’s why to me it is very important, especially for women. They tend not to go and ask people for advice very much. It’s very important to have that formalised in a more strong and powerful way.”
Endeavour Mining has arguably been the most successful gold explorer in a region that has been No.1 in the world for new gold discoveries in the past decade.
Scarselli, who also led BHP’s innovative Xplor exploration accelerator program, sees technology having a bigger impact on discovery rates in future and, as importantly, influencing more early partnerships with the communities that can determine the road taken from exploration through to operation and ultimately closure of a mine.
“Definitely the utilisation of AI and machine learning on large databases really allows us to be much more focused on where we are carrying out our activity,” she says.
“We can make decisions faster and be much more precise about where we want to spend our resources, which is really people and capital.
“It also allows us to reduce the amount of footprint. From an environmental point of view if you can reduce that footprint [for] the testing, drilling, and other activities, you are definitely creating a better environment around your site and a better relationship with the local communities.”
Scarselli says AI-led big data analytics and optimisation is going to improve the efficiency of mining and processing, lifting efficiency and eliminating waste before it ever materialises as excess equipment or tailings.
“And then there is the ESG technology piece [influencing] the type of activities you are doing with local communities – how you think about your mine of the future. There is more and more collaboration and more and more support for local communities.
“It is not a new innovation per se but it is a big shift in thinking in mining in terms of not just above ground and below ground but who is surrounding you.”
Endeavour Mining executive VP operations and ESG, Djaria Traore, says her key dual strategic role at the gold mining company “highlights a fundamental reality”.
“Operational performance and ESG are directly connected,” she says.
“A mine that fails to invest in its people, build capacity for suppliers and host communities, or address its environmental impact increases its risk exposure and weakens its social licence to operate.”
“By contrast, embedding ESG into operations strengthens resilience and long-term value creation, reducing disruptions, lowering costs, reinforcing licence to operate and driving measurable efficiency gains.
“ESG is not an add-on, it is a core driver of sustainable cash flow and portfolio strength.”
The company reports extensively on its environmental, social and governance initiatives and outcomes and Scarselli says the transparency is of fundamental importance, regardless of the heat from stakeholders on industry transparency levels.
“I think first of all it is the right thing to do from an investment point of view to pressure companies and to require transparency,” she says.
“The pressure of investors is rightly placed.
“For us it is really important to provide the transparency.
“We have our ESG team and reporting but we have instituted as well a foundation [Endeavour Foundation] to look at external activities, [to] support start-ups and local communities. We provide full transparency on how we’re investing and where we are investing.
“For us it brings the value of investing more and more in the local communities.
“Ultimately we are guests on the land of someone else and so building that transparent relationship with the locals and making them part of the journey is absolutely important.”
Sonia Scarselli will join former US government assistant secretary of state, Geoffrey Pyatt, Greenland government chief advisor, Thomas Lauridsen, and US Center for Strategic and International Studies director, Dr Gracelin Baskaran, for a Resourcing Tomorrow 2025 discussion about the impact of geopolitics and an increasingly fragmented world on mining.
