CMP and Women In Mining Chile sign agreement to promote gender inclusion and equality in mining

CMP and Women In Mining Chile sign an agreement to promote inclusion and gender equality in mining.
Through this agreement, the mining company commits to contribute and support WIM in generating and promoting the participation and professional development of women in the industry. In order to continue promoting gender equality throughout its value chain, Compañía Minera del Pacífico (CMP) signed an agreement with Women In Mining Chile (WIM) to promote the participation of women and make female talent visible in the mining industry.

WIM is a non-profit organization that seeks to promote the inclusion and professional development of women in all positions of the value chain, empowering and increasing their participation and visibility in the mining industry. "We are very pleased that WIM has chosen La Serena as the kick-off city for Mining Month and, within that context, to receive recognition for advances in the inclusion of women and diversity. We are motivated to participate actively in WIM's activities and, in particular, this agreement makes concrete a commitment that we have been making for some time with initiatives for the inclusion of women as 50% in executive positions, which represent the future of diversity and are based on gender equity", said Francisco Carvajal, general manager of CMP.through this agreement, the company undertakes to promote WIM's activities and projects within its organization, to make the participation of women in the mining sector more visible. It will also facilitate WIM's role in events, seminars and discussion panels organized by the company, with the objective of highlighting women's leadership and experience at the industry level.

The company will also offer business opportunities to WIM's business partners and will provide internships to student members, thus contributing to their academic and professional development. Finally, CMP is committed to actively incorporate the entity in its recruitment processes, especially in programs for young graduate professionals and trainees.

As part of this agreement, the mining company was recognized by Women In Mining for its good practices. "The example we saw today in the signing of the agreement with CMP is a tremendous advance, the leadership shown by Francisco Carvajal at the head of this organization, having in Chile the first joint executive committee, is a tremendous step forward. We believe that this is how we will continue to move forward to have a more diverse and inclusive industry in Chile," said Ana Salazar, president of WIM.

For her part, the Seremi of Mining, Constanza Espinosa, said that "we have to open spaces for more women in the industry and of course the 50% of women executives in CMP is a great achievement, as this also allows the incorporation of different points of view, strengthening and making the industry much more diverse and inclusive. As a government we are very happy to see how mining is moving towards this path".

Along the same lines, the seremi of Seremi Mujer y Equidad de Género, María Fernanda Glaser, valued the initiative, noting that "this ceremony is tremendously exciting, because we know that there is a road travelled and we are with WIM, so that this continues to happen. We want this to multiply and we are proud that the company that leads this leadership is present in our region".

A strategic goal

In March of this year, CMP became the first mining company to promote an executive committee with gender parity, composed of 5 women and 5 men. As a result, the company increased the participation of women in executive positions from 40% to 50%.

"This progress reflects our firm belief as a company that diversity brings significant value to both decision making and risk management in our business," said Carvajal.

Thus, 29% of the company's assistant managers and superintendencies are headed by women, and they have managed to reach 15% of total female staff within the mining company, more than double the figure for the 2012-2018 period (7.4%) and above the national mining average.

Another of the actions that stands out is the reduction of the working day to 40 hours, becoming the first private mining company to implement this measure last October, which has allowed them "to reconcile the personal, family and work life of our workers and to move towards greater co-responsibility", the executive emphasized.