International Minerals Innovation Institute

CIM Magazine

A mentorship program for women in mining, mining-focused lesson plans for Indigenous youth and a program encouraging young girls to consider careers in mining were among the winners of the International Minerals Innovation Institute’s (IMII) first-ever “diversity and inclusion challenge” in late January.

The Saskatchewan-based institute – which has a membership made up of mining companies, government agency Innovation Saskatchewan, post-secondary institutions and research groups  – gave a total $1 million to five programs focused on increasing the number of women and Indigenous people in mining. In total the projects received just over $680,000 in funding, and will also get $206,250 in cash and in-kind resources. All five programs will last for two years.

“We’re driven by the needs of our members and they’ve adopted [diversity] targets and support diversity and inclusion,” IMII executive director Al Shpyth told CIM Magazine. “We agreed there were some things we could better achieve if we acted together.”

Read the full article here or visit http://magazine.cim.org/en/news/2018/saskatchewan-minerals-institute-funds-diversity-projects/