World number five gold miner Harmony is increasing the number of women at its local mines and, while progress is relatively slow, the process of integrating women into the mining operations has been quite smooth, Harmony mining executives said on Monday.
At Harmony’s Elandsrand mine, which has a total work force of 4 500 people, 70 women are employed.
South Africa’s mining charter requires that 10% of the sector’s workforce must be comprised of women, so in the case of Elandsrand, the mine will have to employ 380 women. By June 2004, Harmony is aiming to employ 100 women miners.
“The women we have employed at the mining operations level have been coping very well. Their male counterparts have accepted them into the workplace — they respect each other — that’s quite nice to see,” said Elandsrand mine manager Horst Jager.
The first two women miners have received blasting licenses at the mine.
“A significant issue was arranging separate ablution facilities for the women. There have been very few glitches in introducing women on the mine,” Jager said.
Harmony executives even went so far as to say that it was “a good thing” that South African Minister of Minerals and Energy Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka had “forced” the mining industry to employ women underground.
“It has certainly been a paradigm shift,” Jager said. – I-Net Bridge