Time for the minerals industry to ‘act and lead’: AWIMAR report
- 20 October 2025
The mining industry must move beyond “pink washing” if it wants to attract the smart people, social license and capital it needs to build the mines of tomorrow, a new Australian Women in Mining and Resources (AWIMAR) report says.
AWIMAR, which is hosting a panel discussion involving international business leaders in Sydney today, says more needs to be done to support gender inclusion, equity and diversity in the minerals industry.
The industry has made significant strides on safety and is becoming more technologically advanced but remains “one of the least gender diverse industries” in mature mining countries such as Australia with latest data indicating women were still “vastly underrepresented” in the industry.
“Now is the time for action”, the AWIMAR report proclaims.
“The industry needs to move further beyond pink washing or the practice of promotion of gender diversity but not making real change or delivering action.
“Many companies may have shiny gender diversity policies and public statements that are not reflected in what happens onsite and away from head office.”
AWIMAR cited Australian Institute of Management (AIM) data indicating higher workforce diversity, particularly in leadership, was positively correlated with innovation and that companies ranked in the top 25% of gender diversity were 21% more likely to report above average profitability.
“Improved talent attraction and retention is also important with 85% of young women actively looking for employers with a strong policy on gender diversity and 61% of women specifically review gender diversity in the leadership team when choosing a workplace,” the report said.
“Women are also important investors, with about 33% of global wealth controlled by women and the number of female investors on the ASX rising [with] 42% of all investors and half of all intending investors women.”
AWIMAR said Australian government data indicated 22% of the mining workforce in the country was female and only 11% of CEOs were female. There was a 19.8% gender pay gap and while mining had the highest average industry remuneration at A$195,141 only about 16% of the upper pay quartile were women.
“Over the past 20 years the number of women employed full-time in mining nationally rose from just 8700 in August 2002 to 45,000 in August 2022. This is a significant increase, although there is also evidence that growth is now slowing,” AWIMAR said.
“Internationally, the data on female representation is difficult to determine ... An IWIM [International Women in Mining] report released in 2024 notes that ... 35 of the top 100 mining companies [are] not providing gender disaggregated data.”
BHP, the world’s largest mining company, set an aspirational goal in 2016 to achieve a “gender balanced” global employee workforce by the end of calendar 2025. Gender balance was defined as a minimum 40% women and 40% men. In April this year BHP said it reached 40% female representation in its circa-90,000 global workforce, a world first for a global mining company.
AWIMAR report recommends the formation of a joint industry and government taskforce to “spearhead reform and initiatives to drive advancement on gender diversity, equity and inclusion in the resources industry”.
The industry needed to undertake broadscale mapping to understand what was working and what wasn’t. It needed to better promote opportunities to future workforce participants, including “broadscale promotion of role models as you can’t be what you can’t see”.
The industry needed standard company reporting indicators, similar to key performance indicators developed and used in safety reporting.
And with recently legislated workplace sexual harassment prevention laws for employers, “this is the time for every company to review and reflect on policies and performance”.
It said a 2024 Australasian Institute of Minerals and Metallurgy (AusIMM) industry survey that drew 700 responses indicated “24% of women did not feel that they belonged or were connected with the resources sector, 50% of women surveyed had witnessed gender inequality and bullying in the last two years [and] 16% of women had experienced sexual harassment in the last two years”.
“That is almost one in five women,” it said.
“This needs to change.”
AWIMAR said mentoring, sponsorship and support for women in all career stages also needed to be expanded.
“Broadscale assessment and management of the leaky pipeline of women leaving the industry, especially during major life transitions, is needed,” it said.
“Mentoring is offered only in some states and territories for women in the minerals industry and so a national program as well as focus on students, new entrants and the progression to executive and board roles could enhance the offerings.
“With the current awareness and understanding, legal, moral and business imperatives, this is the time – the time for the minerals industry to act and lead.
“The future of the minerals industry is too important to ignore this call to action.”
