Across the globe, mining companies are facing a growing talent gap. Experienced engineers are retiring, and new graduates are increasingly drawn to emerging industries. Competition for skilled professionals is fierce. I often hear of projects stalling, not for lack of capital but because companies simply don’t have the capacity.
Yet, as of 2021, women represented just 10.8% of engineers in Mexico’s mining and extraction sector[1]. If we want to close the talent gap, we must increase women’s participation in mining.
To be clear, progress has been made. When I first visited a mine site nearly 20 years ago, I was the only woman on the construction team. About 10 years ago, things began to shift, with more women starting to join the mining and construction workforce, particularly in areas like HSE. Yet, women remain significantly underrepresented in key disciplines like electrical, civil, and mechanical engineering.
So, what can we do to bring more women into mining—and, just as importantly, how do we support their growth and retention?
As the leader of one of Mexico’s top engineering and consulting firms, I’m committed to delivering top talent and ideas to our clients on every project. That means drawing from a broad and diverse workforce and inspiring the next generation to see a future in mining.
This isn’t just a company-level challenge; it’s an industry-wide imperative. Driving change requires collaboration, shared strategies and collective action. Here are five steps Ausenco is taking to advance diversity in Mexico:
- Creating a better place to work. Mining often requires long hours, sometimes in isolated and challenging environments – conditions that create tension for employees balancing family responsibilities and careers. Our standard work week is 40 hours, and employees can work from home up to 50 percent of the time while engaged in studies or engineering scope. This flexibility supports work-life balance and allows parents to spend more time at home.
- Removing unconscious bias in hiring practices. Multiple studies prove the existence of unconscious bias in hiring – with people often favoring candidates they relate to. That is why our talent and HR teams are working to find ways to reduce and eliminate the potential for bias in our hiring practices and our development processes. To be clear, we are not setting quotas but rather finding ways to effectively evaluate candidate based on their merit.
- Mentoring and supporting women. It’s difficult to aspire to something you can’t see. A lack of women role models in the industry can limit ambition and opportunity. Organizations like the Society of Women Engineers and Women in Mining play a key role in helping women connect with role models and mentors to help them develop their skills and build confidence. At Ausenco, our global Women@Ausenco network - open to women and allies - provides support, mentoring, and a platform for raising issues and driving change across the company.
- Partnerships with academic institutions. Moving women from education to activation in the mining industry often requires some hands-on experience. To help students transition from education to a career in mining, we’ve partnered with local academic institutions to bring students and new grads into the workplace on co-op or apprenticeship programs. These programs expose students to real work environments, diverse career paths, and active work sites - helping build skills and confidence. To make a real difference, we provide our co-ops with a wage and offer full-time employment to those who meet our high standards once their schooling is completed. Once at Ausenco, they can join the New Professionals Program to get more familiar with the business and mining practices.
- Encouragement at every stage of the career journey. Attracting women is only the first step. We’re equally focused on supporting long-term growth and development. That means our leaders – both men and women –actively encourage team members to stretch into new roles and responsibilities. In my career, key moments of encouragement made all the difference. Timely support and confidence building are essential for retaining and advancing women in our organization.
As industry leaders, we need to be willing to learn from each other as we drive greater diversity in Mexico’s mining sector. I actively seek ideas and collaborators from my global network and other industries, like food manufacturing, where 60 percent of engineering talent are women, and from other countries such as Iceland which boasts near equal representation in the workforce. These perspectives can spark meaningful change.
I hope this article inspires other mining leaders in Mexico to take deliberate action towards greater diversity. It’s not just the right thing to do but essential for the future of our industry.
Article first published in Mexico Business News, June 2025. Reprinted with permission.
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[1]Mexico STEM Workforce, Society of Women Engineers, 2022