Twani Ortiz, Senior in Social Management and Sustainable Development at Element 29, founder and director of Young Mining Professionals, indicated that there are studies that show that "a company's productivity can improve by 15% if its diversity policies are clear, shared and led from the top in a way that it cascades down".

During her participation as a panelist on the first day of Mining Thursday 2023 (Jueves Minero 2023), organized by the Peruvian Institute of Mining Engineers, Ortiz pointed out that 15 years ago, greater importance was being given to the issue of Diversity and Inclusion in the mining industry.

"The challenge is to understand diversity in the broadest sense, as an embrace of all minorities in the environments where we work," she said.

She also explained that she is currently seeing more efforts from the private sector in general, which is trying to catch up with statistics from countries such as Chile in terms of Diversity and Inclusion. For example, including people from the LGTBIQ community, with different abilities, with cultural variety, etc.

"The importance of these issues has to be internalized (...). This is because we must retain the best possible professional talent and we are faced with professionals with a scale of values that is also changing. The sense of belonging is no longer linked only to a salary scale, but to shared values," said Ortiz.

She also made reference to working on this issue not only as a business culture, but also as a policy, for which the State must participate with clear policies on Diversity and Inclusion.

proEXPLO, a space for dialogue

Finally, she emphasized that the 13th International Congress of Prospectors and Explorers - proEXPLO 2023 will be an ideal space to discuss this issue and define proposals for improvement.

"Today, we (women) have greater representation in management positions, but it is also true that as the mining project advances, the female presence decreases (...) proEXPLO seems to me to be one of the best spaces to reduce the generational gap and to bring to the table issues that for some groups may still be uncomfortable," she said.

proEXPLO 2023: Descubriendo la Minería del Futuro