Meet Ludmila, one of our talented Mining Engineers. Throughout Ludmila’s 5 and a half years with MACA, she has worked across our Brazil, Queensland and WA operations.
Ludmila started her journey with MACA in 2016 as a Graduate Engineer at our Tucano Gold operations in Brazil, before making the move to Australia in 2018.
Now, Ludmila has chosen to focus her career on operational technology and provides support to sites that are developing technology systems, such as fleet management systems, GPS, payload and reporting.
Ludmila says: “The area of technology is growing in the mining industry, which is beneficial to both the company and workers in many ways. This is not only by identifying areas to improve in production, but also safety and environmental impact.
The flexibility and opportunities to grow at MACA are what I enjoy most, and my managers and colleagues always make me feel supported of this.
One of the greatest challenges that women face in the mining industry is the difficulty to establish credibility, especially in a management or supervisor position. Mining was always a male dominated industry, and because of that, it takes time to introduce women to leadership and gain trust from the team.
It’s important to celebrate IWD to remember what we have achieved so far, but most of all raise awareness that we still have fights to win. I hope to see more women as leaders across all mining industry areas and that we don’t have to prove our worth more than men usually do.
Bias is still a big issue that occurs daily, for both men and women, particularly unconscious bias. Improving the way we communicate to each other will help #BreakTheBias.
For example, we shouldn’t make assumptions on what women can and cannot do at a particular job because of stereotypes. Also, comments such as “you are bossy”, just for being assertive, mislead the fact that you’re a good leader with direction and focus.
To become a more creative and innovative industry, more diversity is needed. We will only change statistics by showing up and standing up for ourselves. Joining the mining industry has been extremely rewarding, and my advice to anyone interested would be to do it!”
