Australian Mining spoke to Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) chief executive officer Tania Constable for International Women’s Day to hear about the progress of women in mining.

The upper ranks of Australia’s mining industry look very different from a generation ago.

Women now occupy some of the most influential roles in the sector: Gina Rinehart as executive chairman of Hancock Prospecting; Geraldine Slattery as BHP’s president Australia; Amanda Lacaze as chief executive of Lynas Rare Earths; Madeleine King as federal resources minister; and Tania Constable as chief executive of the Minerals Council of Australia.

Such a concentration of female leadership would once have been unthinkable. Today, it signals how far the industry has come – and how far it still aims to go.

Beyond the top tier, progress is also evident in efforts to address the systemic barriers that have historically prevented women from entering the industry and advancing their careers.

Speaking to Australian Mining ahead of International Women’s Day, Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) chief executive officer Tania Constable said the sector has been actively confronting many of the long-standing challenges women face.

“I think we have been addressing a whole range of those structural barriers that have been there for quite some time. There’s been concerns about training, the way that mine sites have been set up, the wages and salaries that have been paid to women over a long period of time, not just in our industry, but across the board,” Constable told Australian Mining.

“We’ve taken all of those structural limitations into account and tried to make sure that each of those barriers has been addressed company by company and as an industry, by talking about them, reporting, and having discussions about what the solutions might be.”

The June 2022 West Australian Parliament Community Development and Justice Standing Committee report into sexual harassment and assault in the fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) mining sector was a watershed moment, prompting widespread reflection and renewed commitment to reform across the industry.

Constable said efforts to tackle sexual harassment, alongside company targets to recruit and promote more women, are two clear examples of tangible progress.

She pointed to improvements over the past five years following the introduction of the MCA’s 2021 Industry Code on Eliminating Sexual Harassment, which outlines standards member companies are expected to uphold when preventing and responding to workplace sexual harassment.

The Australian Human Rights Commission’s Time for Respect: Fifth National Survey on Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces found reported incidents in mining fell from 40 per cent in 2019 to 32 per cent in 2023 — an eight percentage point reduction that places the industry below the national average of 33 per cent.

Constable said the improvements have been significant, but the work is ongoing.

“We have a zero-tolerance policy, and the aim is to stamp out sexual harassment. So that’s the message we send out, and companies are acting on that.”

Constable said such policies are being reinforced by practical, incremental improvements on worksites across the country, with commitments increasingly backed by action on the ground.

She said that progress is being driven by a genuine desire among companies to strengthen workplace culture and create more inclusive and responsive environments.

“Of course, you have the structural limitations like fly-in, fly-out, drive-in, drive-out. We’ve got policies to address that, to meet the needs of all employees, including women, around school and parenting duties.

“On sites we’ve done a lot of work making sure employers are thinking about things like change rooms, toilet facilities, PPE gear, and other factors that accommodate women’s needs.

“There are on-site issues that you’ve got to absolutely get right when you’ve got a camp. You’ve got to have security measures that make women feel safe – lighting, rooms, security guards. Those things certainly have made a difference in making operational staff feel safer.

“These are significant changes we’ve started to see come in that have enhanced the possibility of having more women working operationally on site.”

Constable said another notable area of advancement has been in the number of women entering – and remaining in – the industry. She cited BHP’s progress as a standout example of what sustained, top-level commitment can achieve.

In April 2025, BHP achieved a goal set in 2016 to reach gender balance across its global workforce by the end of 2025, becoming the first globally listed mining company to meet a minimum threshold of 40 per cent female representation.

By mid-2025, women represented 41.3 per cent of BHP’s workforce – more than double the 17.6 per cent recorded when the target was first announced.

“It’s not just about women coming into the workforce. Women are in leadership positions, and there’s now reporting on succession plans at the highest level within the company. So that’s the sort of outcome you want to see from companies. There are other great examples, but that certainly has been a standout,” Constable said.

Constable said it was vital for major miners to lead on gender equality and inclusion, given the influence they exert across supply chains and the broader sector.

Likewise, the rise of women into leadership roles across the industry has provided visible representation that encourages others to aspire to managerial and executive positions.

Though still in a minority, women in leadership are no longer viewed as anomalies.

“It’s extremely important to have role models that young women can see,” Constable said.

“It’s pointed out time after time by young women that they see the women in these roles and they think, ‘Well, I can do that, and that could be me someday.’ That’s a great thing, because we will see people coming through because of legacies left by a whole range of women in leadership positions, including me.

“We’ve all come to our roles in different ways, and some of us have done it tough along the way. There’s been no free ride for any of the women that are in leadership positions. They’ve been hard fought. They’re merit-based. And if I look at women in mining, they’re extraordinarily competent. I see female board members and those in operational roles that inspire me every day, and again, that shows the industry is advancing, and it has advanced from where it was even a few years ago.”

Constable said the finalists across the various categories in the Women in Resources awards were an encouraging reminder of the progress being made.

“I look at those awards and see an incredibly talented range of people in trades and professions, women who have made mining their chosen career,” she said.

Constable also pointed to participation rates in the MCA’s minerals industry experience course – MiEX – as another example of the inroads being made.

Launched in 2025, MiEX gives first-year university STEM students two weeks of paid practical experience within the minerals industry and is supported by AusIMM, BHP, Cahoot Learning, Glencore, Idemitsu Australia, Komatsu and Rio Tinto. This year’s intake comprised 62 per cent women.

The work on gender equality and securing a place for women in mining is not finished. But the industry has made significant strides over the past five years, and with an increasing number of women in key leadership roles, it appears well positioned to continue that trajectory.

Read more: Resources Minister backs women to power mining’s future

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