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SA mining companies have highest level of female board representation – PwC

10th April 2014

By: Leandi Kolver

Creamer Media Deputy Editor

  

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JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa’s mining companies have the highest level of female representation at board level, followed by Canada, while Australia has the lowest percentage of women in executive management positions in the industry, a recent report by professional services firm PwC has shown.

PwC, in conjunction with sponsors Anglo American, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, analysed the largest 100 and largest 500 publicly listed mining companies by market capitalisation to determine the extent of their gender diversity at board level, including the contribution women made to the realisation of a better performing and more sustainable business.

This research found that on the boards of South African companies in the top-100 listed mining companies 23.8% of the members were women, while of the board members of the South African companies in the top-500 mining listed mining companies 21.4% were women.

“South Africa is a leader when it comes to female representation at board level and in senior leadership roles. The complex regulatory environment in which South African mining companies operate their businesses has played an important role in driving the development and representation of women in the mining industry,” PwC human resources services director for Southern Africa Gerald Seegers said.

He added that PwC’s research also showed that there was a strong correlation between having more women in management positions and improved company performance across a number of metrics, including governance, finance, social and environmental.

Meanwhile, PwC also found that the mining industry had fewer women on boards than any other major industry, including oil and gas.

At present, about 5% to 10% of the workforce in the mining industry was female.

In the top-500 listed mining companies in the world, 7.2% of directors were women, with the top-100 companies having 10.3% female directors. The report also disclosed that only seven CEOs in the world’s top-500 listed mining companies were women.

Further, according to the findings of the study, of the 106 female directors in the top-100 mining companies, just three of them held more than one directorship. Out of the 500 listed mining companies reviewed, just 14 had reached the “critical mass” of 30%  women representation on their boards, with six of these being in the top 100.

“It is only when this level of female participation on boards is reached, that the full benefit of gender diversity can be achieved,” Seegers commented, adding that some progress was, however, being made, with 58% of the top-100 companies having at least one women on their boards, compared with 46% last year.

With regard to core committees, including remuneration, nomination and audit/risk, overall participation by women was 7.6%.

South Africa had the highest core committee participation with more than 21% of committee seats on JSE-listed mining companies being occupied by women. Canada had the lowest participation on board committees by women, at 5.9%, closely followed by Hong Kong and the UK both at 6%.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

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