• Furthermore, more than 40% of the company's leadership positions are held by women, and the team that reports to the company's CEO is gender balanced.

In the Diversity and Inclusion segment developed as part of the PERUMIN 36 Mining Summit, Lauren Arias, head of joint ventures at BHP Minerals Americas, highlighted that the inclusion of women is a strategic focus for BHP globally.

This decision was based not only on good intentions, but also on studies that show that gender-balanced teams make better decisions, have better execution and follow safer practices, resulting in greater profitability and value creation.

To that end, Arias mentioned that in 2016, the company set a goal to achieve gender balance by 2025. At that time, 17% of BHP's workforce was female, and they had to work diligently on a mindset and culture shift to increase that percentage.

"BHP has doubled the number of women globally to 35%, with over 40% of our leadership positions held by women. The team reporting to the BHP CEO has been gender balanced for some time. Here in the Americas, we currently have 36% female representation, and in Chile we have the most female operation in the country, Spence, which is over 38% female," said Lauren Arias.

Achieving these significant numbers has required the implementation of a strategic plan that first established public gender balance targets, annual quotas to increase female representation and incorporated them into KPIs. Second, they drove cultural change through respectful behavior campaigns and elevated workplace harassment and sexual harassment to the level of a material risk to BHP, treating it on the same level as a fatality or environmental incident.

Third, they have invested in specific recruitment, retention and career development programs for women.

The executive leader of joint ventures at BHP Minerals Americas admits that the task has not been easy. "We have learned along the way. Such a significant cultural change requires the commitment of the entire organization," she says. But it has been worth it, she says, because they are making sustainable progress toward their goal and today have a more diverse and inclusive workforce.

"The profile of a miner belongs to everyone, not to a specific group. I am a reflection of the miner's profile, as are all of you, as are my LGBTQ colleagues, my colleagues with disabilities, and my indigenous colleagues. We have to work so that these things no longer come as a surprise," Arias stressed.