Chile ranks 2nd globally in terms of highest number of women in mining

Over the past decade, the presence of women in large-scale mining companies has tripled, reaching 21.8% in the first half of 2024, a figure that remained stable in the second half of the year with a total of 11,239 female employees.

In the context of International Women’s Day, the CCM-Eleva Partnership presented the Gender Indicators Monitoring Report, a key tool for measuring progress on female inclusion in mining companies. This report, prepared with the support of 12 companies in the sector—including Antofagasta Minerals, Anglo American, BHP, CMP, Codelco, Collahuasi, Freeport-McMoRan, Gold Fields, Lundin Mining, SQM Litio, SQM Yodo Nutrición Vegetal and Teck—reflects the progress made and challenges remaining in terms of gender equity.

One of the main findings of the monitoring is that Chile has surpassed the target established in the 2050 National Mining Policy, with women representing 21.8% of employees in mining companies. This ranks our country second in the world in terms of women’s participation, just below Australia (22%), and above benchmarks such as Canada (18.4%) and the United States (13.6%). This progress has been possible through the joint efforts of mining companies, the public sector, civil society and the training sector, which have enabled significant growth from the 7.7% recorded in 2014.

Monitoring also shows an increase in the hiring of women in mining companies. In the second half of 2023, 47.4% of new hires in the large-scale mining sector were women, a historic figure. Although the first half of 2024 saw a drop to 38.6%, the second half showed a recovery, where female hires reached 43%, which translates into the incorporation of 1,485 new female workers.

On a regional level, Antofagasta leads the participation of women in mining, with a growth from 21.6% in 2023 to 25.6% in the second half of 2024, surpassing the national average (21.8%).

Training challenges

Despite this progress, female participation in technical training specialization programs related to mining remains stagnant, with only 13% in higher education and 14% in technical-vocational secondary education. “This limits the future supply of talent in a key sector for the country’s economy. Female labor force participation levels in Chile are still below the OECD average and given that mining is the industry that contributes the most to the national GDP, increasing the presence of women in the sector represents a development opportunity for both the country and the mining sector,” said Vladimir Glasinovic, Director of the Eleva Program at Fundación Chile, CCM-Eleva Partnership. Source: Mining Portal.