Equality In Mining.

There is no doubt that this has been one of the largest issues in the mining industry over the past few years, with women & indigenoud australians moving into the industry. I think the figure stands at about 12% of the mining industry are women in non traditional roles, i.e mining engineers, geos, metallurgists etc. The industry still wants to increase this figure, and the job retention prospects are very good at this point in time. The other thing that the industry has worked on is increasing the amount of indigenous Australian workers in mines. An excellent example of this is the Zinifex Century Mine, in Northern Queensland. The mine is situated very close to many indigenous communities including Normanton, Karumba & even Mornington Island. In a survey by the CSRM (Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining) here at UQ, found the once indigenous Australians were in these roles, their quality of life increased, they recieved training, and were payed alot more then previous work. In another survey, indigenous Australians who left the mine, were generally more qualified, and wanted to get other work related to the mining industry.

These are exiciting prospects. The mining boom is bringing alot to our economy, and now it can bring even more to our community, by promoting equality within all parts of Australian society.