BHP Minerals Americas has reached its target of 40% of female representation by FY2024. However, retention of that level of representation is not without its challenges, particularly for our Escondida operation in Chile, South America. Chile’s mining industry has an 85% male representation on average at the national level, compared to our Escondida operation having an average at 61.5% male representation, as of February 2024. Our female workforce is attracted, trained and retained through a robust employee experience from day one. Our aim is to provide Chile’s female population with the opportunity to, like men, develop their careers in the high-level, international, and stable industry that is mining. BHP believes that we must reflect the diverse societies in which we develop. Therefore, our Escondida operation continues our goals of bringing on and retaining qualified female labor. 

To this end, since 2016, our efforts have focused on training female talent and bringing them into our operations. The Mineras program has been a pivotal tool here. It is a 3-to-4-month training strategy at the Industrial and Mining Training Center in which women from the Antofagasta Region, Chile, receive focused training to perform roles as operators (plant and mine) and maintainers (mechanical and electrical). After completing the training process, around 80% of participants enter the company with a fixed-term contract for six or twelve months, with a pathway to obtaining a permanent contract.  

But our work could not stop there. In the process of transforming our workforce, we also needed to ensure that these women were entering a space in which they felt valued and respected. Therefore, in September 2023, BHP Escondida launched Comunidad Mineras: An internal collaborative network comprising workers who seek to expand their connections, promote better career development, and facilitate more women being part of the company. Over the last 6 months, over 270 women have voluntarily participated in 20 Comunidad Mineras activities, including workshops, conversation circles, welcoming new workers, networking activities, and representing BHP in important events like our Woman in Project network. 

Moving forward, so that we can best track Comunidad Mineras, its success will be measured over a period of 12 months using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These KPIs include the number of:  

• Workers registered in the community (Target: 300 women). 
• Internal activities carried out (Target: 40 internal activities). 
• External activities where workers represent the Mining Community (Target: 20 external activities).
• People impacted by the Comunidad Mineras (Target: 300 people). 
• Workers participating in the activities carried out (Target: 500 women).

Overall, through the combination of Mineras and Comunidad Mineras, we are seizing our opportunity to not only achieve gender balance but also evolve the culture in which we work.