Changing the Face of Mining Conference 2019 - A Recap
BY JENN SAMSON

In 2018, a group of female engineering students from the Mineral Resource Engineering department took the initiative to design a day-long conference that shines the spotlight on prominent women in the mining industry. The mining industry is made up of a majority of men, and there has been a surge of support in the recent past for women in and entering this industry, which spans all manner of occupations including engineering. These students wanted to showcase some of that progress here at Dalhousie University to incoming generations of engineers in order to demonstrate that there are some amazing women who are role models for us all.

On March 16th 2019, we did it again. The Changing the Face of Mining Conference returned for its second year and featured four trailblazing women: Maryse Bélanger, Sally Goodman, Siri Genik, and Marilyn Spink. This conference was designed to appeal to everyone with an interest in the mining industry and as such we attracted more business professionals than expected; the student to professional ratio was nearly 1:1 which allowed for great networking opportunities! Approximately 100 people attended and lunch was provided for everyone thanks to the generous support of our sponsors.

Maryse Bélanger is the President, Chief Operating Officer, and Director of the Atlantic Gold Mining Corporation, among other organizations. This powerhouse has been active in the mining industry for over 30 years and has lived in over 17 countries throughout that time gaining a world-renowned level of expertise. This experience has allowed her to re-evaluate the approach to gold mining and to develop the lowest cost gold producing mine in the sector, the details of which she shared with us in her presentation.

Dr. Sally Goodman is the Chief Geoscientist at Atlantic Gold Mining Corporation. She has previously worked for over 30 years as a structural geologist for various companies all across the world. This brilliant woman shared ten life lessons that she has learned from her time in a male-dominated field, but her lessons apply to everyone. My favourite was a lesson in knowing when to stay, and when to recognize the walk-away. Her advice appealed to every person in attendance, especially the students who are coming closer and closer to their first foray into the workforce.

Marilyn Spink is a Professional Engineer with a degree in Materials and Metallurgical Engineer from Queen’s University, who has over 25 years of experience in the industry. Specializing in operations and mainly focusing on the development and execution of large-scale capital projects, Marilyn has quite a bit to say about how engineering is applied in the industry. Her presentation explored the concept of viewing engineering as a commodity and where the dangers lie. Engineering is a crucial factor in the success of a project and there are risks to demanding the cheapest solution for serious technical issues.

Siri Genik is the Principal and Co-founder of the company BRIDGE which is a consulting firm focused in developing specialized project strategies for companies which result in successful, cost saving and sustainable results. With an academic background in law one would not suspect that Siri has a love for mining, but she does thanks to her family history in the mining industry. Her presentation focused on how to reverse engineer the solution to a problem, and how to incorporate sustainable goals for long-term growth.

At the end of the conference the Dalhousie Student Chapter of the CIM presented two awards to mining students for their involvement in the society and their interest in mining. For the 3rd years, Simone Matthews received a scholarship and for the 4th years, Lloyd MacCormack received a scholarship.

Thank you to everyone who attended and we hope to see you all out for the next event in 2020!

All presentations are available at https://dalwimcon.wixsite.com/website