Hello, and welcome to the WA Mining Club’s March e-newsletter.
In February we held our annual Market Outlook, which, as usual, started off the year with a bang. Some great topics were discussed, with Liam Twigger injecting his characteristic humour all the while.
More recently in March, we celebrated International Women’s day. This year’s theme was #ChooseToChallenge, kicked off by an electric discussion starter asking us all to collectively choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality.
Mahatma Ghandi summed it up best when he said: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Personally, I always make sure I celebrate every woman’s success, as we should always seek to inspire one another. We’re at our strongest when we cheer each other on.
As Mother Teresa said: “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”
On 5 March, I was privileged to hear from human rights lawyer and hostage survivor Rabia Siddique QCVS BA LLB FAIM CSP, who held 900 attendees in the palm of her hand at AusIMM’s International Women’s Day Luncheon with her personal story of strength, courage, and forgiveness in surviving a hostage crisis in Iraq and making the British military accountable for silencing her ordeal as a military lawyer in releasing captured Special Forces soldiers.
She quoted Ghandi’s “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” and shared four key takeaways:
On behalf of the WA Mining Club, I would like to thank all the incredible women in our community and on our committees.
Mining in Western Australia has more women involved than ever before, but there’s still more work to be done. The WA Mining Club is committed to building an inclusive and fair resource sector in this great state.
In other news, on the 12th of March I held the annual President’s Golf Day, where we saw around 200 participants have a sensational day’s golfing. This is a great event, and one not to be missed. The profits from this event go straight to our scholarship program, which assists our emerging leaders to get through their studies.
At our March Luncheon we heard from Sanjiv Manchanda, who covered the rebranding of Atlas Iron.
Looking forward, our April Luncheon will feature Michael Gollschewski, Vice President of Operations Australia, President Alcoa Australia.
At next month’s luncheon, we will be holding our Club’s Annual General Meeting where five Committee positions will be declared vacant. If you wish to nominate, please complete the Nomination Form as posted on the Club’s website. Only paid-up Club members can nominate. The nomination must be supported by a seconder and only members can be a seconder. Nominations close on Sunday, 11 April at 5:00pm.
In other news, our Young Professionals committee launched ‘The YP Awards 2021’, aimed at recognising young professionals in the mining industry who have demonstrated excellence in their field, shown leadership and inclusiveness, and created value to the mining industry and the wider community.
It was great to see so many incredible and inspiring achievements at the WIRA2021. A huge congratulations to CMEWA for an excellent event. All the finalists were so inspiring, and it was hard to pick the winners. Congratulations to all award winners.
Business News celebrated another successful 40under40 Awards event. A huge congratulations to all the winners and well done to all nominees.
A quick update on the STEM UnitED program. Andrea Conte and his team have really kicked some goals in the past twelve months. Even with the challenges of COVID, they engaged with 4000 students in six months across 50 member schools. The program is receiving incredible feedback from parents, students and schools on the impact of this program.
If you’re interested in learning how your organisation can partner with this program, please contact me. We are aiming to reach 6000 students this year with a focus on regional areas and we need the support of the industry to make that happen.
Natalie Taylor
WA Mining Club President
