Women in Mining and Aggregates: 17 Leaders to Follow

It’s not a big secret that mining and aggregates tend to be male-dominated industries. Women are especially underrepresented in STEM fields.

And yet study after study after study has found a positive correlation between company performance and gender diversity, especially when women are fairly represented in positions of leadership.

So, we feel it’s necessary to take a moment to celebrate the women who are currently shaping the mining and aggregates industries with their knowledge, skills and hard work.

Their stories are especially important for any girls and young women reading right now. To those readers, know that there is a place for you in mining, in aggregates and in any industry where people show up to work with a hard hat.

Here are 17 women who have found success in such industries.

Dr. Kathy Altman, Roscoe Postle Associates

Kathy Altman, P.E., Ph.D., is RPA’s director of metallurgy and mineral processing as well as the company’s principal metallurgist, a role to which she brings more than 30 years of industry experience. That experience includes work as a consultant and in academia — Dr. Altman was an associate at the University of Nevada, Reno from 2005 to 2009.

Lynda Bloom, Analytical Solutions Ltd.

Lynda Bloom has been the president of consultancy Analytical Solutions Ltd. for more than 30 years, which makes her one of the foremost experts in Canada and around the world in mineral and geochemical exploration. She is one of the mining industry’s go-to people in Canada when a company needs guidance with the NI 43-101 standards of disclosure regulation compliance.

Laurie Brlas, Calpine Corporation

Laurie Brlas joined the board of directors at Calpine in August 2016, and she is a member of the corporation’s audit committee. Prior to that, she spent a decade and a half in executive-level roles at Newmont Mining Corporation, Cliffs Natural Resources and STERIS, the latter a healthcare products company.

Wanda Burget, Accord Resource Solutions

Wanda Burget is the owner and principal at Accord Resource Solutions, a consultancy that helps clients with a variety of challenges related to developing, conserving or using natural resources. Burget herself brings more than 35 years of experience with data management, mineral leasing at the federal level, compliance and policy, and sustainable development.

Ann Carpenter, Remote Energy Solutions

Ann Carpenter is the president and CEO at Remote Energy Solutions, a firm that helps its clients with questions related to energy supply, land use and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, particularly in the mining and extractive industries.

She is also founder, president, CEO and director at Osgood Mountains Gold, which explores and develops gold mining sites in Nevada.

Kristin Gaines, Millennium Bulk Terminals

Kristin Gaines joined Millennium Bulk Terminals in early 2011 and currently serves as the company’s vice president of environmental planning and services, which means she is the go-to person for compliance, permitting and remediation. She brings more than 25 years of experience to that role in remediation, environmental management and brownfield redevelopment, among others.

Dr. Diane Garrett, Oceana Gold

Diane R. Garrett, Ph.D., was appointed to Oceana Gold’s board in 2015 after more than 20 years in senior management and financial roles in the natural resources sector, including president and CEO of Romarco Minerals and vice president of corporate development at Dayton Mining Corporation.

Shortly after her appointment at Oceana Gold, she was also appointed president, CEO and director at Canadian mining company Wellgreen Platinum Ltd.

Dr. Sarah Gordon, Satarla

Sarah Gordon is the founder and CEO of risk management consultancy Satarla, which has offices in London and Johannesburg. Before founding her consultancy, Dr. Gordon — whose doctorate-level research explored the composition of primitive meteorites — worked with AngloAmerican at sites and offices in Europe, Africa and South America.

Katie Jeremiah, Aggregate Resource Industries Inc.

Katie Jeremiah is a co-owner and the vice president at Aggregate Resource Industries Inc., a family company in Springfield, Oregon. Her background is actually in construction law, but she recently joined the company her father founded alongside her brother, Kris. Katie is the company’s legal counsel, and she handles business operations plus regulatory compliance.

Veronica Nyhan Jones, International Finance Corporation

Veronica Nyhan Jones is the global head of International Finance Corporation’s sustainable business advisory, where her team focuses on infrastructure and natural resource development. Before taking on this role, Jones had worked for the World Bank, at the White House and in the U.S Dept. for Health and Human Services.

Zayaan Kahn, Rio Tinto

Zayaan Kahn heads up Rio Tinto Copper and Coal’s marketing intelligence team in Singapore, a role to which she brings more than a decade of experience in mining and public policy. Kahn is also the founder of WIMAR SG, Singapore’s chapter of the Women in Mining and Resources Network.

Debbie Laney, Nalco

Debbie Laney, P.E. is the R&D manager at Nalco’s Global Mining & Metals Research Group, where she and her team develop flotation chemicals for the mining industry. Laney brings to the team extensive experience as a chief metallurgist, superintendent and project manager in several different mining companies. She has also served as president of the Women’s Mining Coalition, where she now sits on the advisory board.

Dr. Angelique Lasseigne, Generation 2 Materials Technology

Dr. Angelique Lasseigne is the founder and CTO at Generation 2 Materials Technology, which is developing new sets of non-destructive evaluation tools for better understand the properties of materials used in industry. Dr. Lasseigne brings to the team a Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering, 80-plus publications, and a special expertise and understanding of how hydrogen interacts with metals.

Julie Lucas, Cliffs Natural Resources

Julie Lucas is the environmental manager at Hibbing Taconite, a company owned by Cliffs Natural Resources. For more than six years, she has overseen the waste management, wetland sustainability, and air and water quality compliance aspects — among others — of an environmental management system at an iron ore facility in Minnesota that employs more than 700 people.

Dr. Priscilla Nelson, Colorado School of Mines

Dr. Priscilla Nelson is the head of the Colorado School of Mines Department of Mining Engineering, a position she has held since 2014. She is also the creator of the site MyCELERY.org, which finds and curates collections of children’s books about engineering to make them easily accessible for K-4 students interested in engineering and STEM fields.

Shastri Ramnath, Orix Geoscience

Shastri Ramnath is the founder, president and principal geologist at Orix Geoscience, Inc. in Canada, a role to which she brings more than 15 years of experience in global exploration, resource estimation and modelling, and project evaluation. Ramnath founded Orix in 2012 to provide three-dimensional geological consulting services to exploration and mining companies.

Debra W. Struhsacker, Pershing Gold Corporation

Debra Struhsacker is a senior vice president at Pershing Gold Corporation, where she brings 30-plus years of experience in working with environmental and public land regulations. She is responsible for the company’s environmental permitting, regulatory and compliance issues, and government relations, and she brings extensive experience in working with policymakers in Washington on behalf of mineral exploration and mine development companies.