BHP calls for more female-friendly equipment

Staff Writer News July 31, 2018 Comments Closed

Vice-president of supply for BHP Minerals in Australia, Sundeep Singh, has said that there are opportunities for improvement in making equipment more suitable for a diverse workforce.

BHP has been working on design with suppliers of heavy equipment, such as Caterpillar, Komatsu and Liebherr, taking into account a workforce with larger numbers of women. Speaking at the Paydirt Resources and Energy Investment conference in Adelaide, Mr Singh talked about the need to consider height of machinery where parts may need changing, or the weight of equipment that requires lifting.

BHP had previously announced a 50:50 gender target by 2025, and Mr Singh said that there was already evidence of the more diverse BHP sites outperforming the average of other sites by around 15 per cent.

Jacqui McGill, former Olympic Dam Asset President at BHP, won the Excellence in Mining Award at the recent Women in Industry Awards in June.

Image credit: BHP