Women In Mining National (WIM USA)

2024 Industry Partnership Award

Women In Mining National (WIM USA) focuses on raising awareness of the critical role women play in the mining industry. Throughout America’s history, women have participated in exploration and mining, often in the face of prejudice and other hardships due to their gender. The contributions women have made, and their role in creating opportunities and better working conditions for all, are noteworthy. Today, women hold every type of position available from general laborer to engineering and technical specialists to corporate executives across underground and surface, metal and nonmetal mines, as well as the energy sector. Women are firmly taking their seat at some of the biggest and most future-altering desks in the extractive industry.

WIM USA has grown into a diverse cross-section of technical professionals, operators, service providers, government officials, academic leaders, environmental and land managers, administrators, and top executives for global operators spanning nine regional chapters and nine student chapters established within the nation’s top mining universities. WIM USA consistently provides networking opportunities for its members as well as offering continued education and speakers who provide crucial information on responsible mining and leadership development—a long way from its start in 1972 when a handful of women in Denver, Colorado reached out to their mining industry contacts to assess interest in developing an organization to provide education about the industry.

The first five WIM USA chapters - Battle Mountain, NV, Denver, CO, Greenwich, CT, St. Louis, MO, and Tucson, AZ – met at the first National Board Meeting in St. Louis, MO in 1981 where the first national officers were elected. Later that same decade, the National Board meeting became open to all members and, soon after, the membership voted to welcome men into the organization as regular members. The WIM Education Foundation was established in 1992 to provide resources to educate students and the public about the importance of mining as well as to support the WIM USA member chapters in furthering their local educational outreach programming.

WIM USA supports its member chapters in their objectives, fosters collaboration among the membership, assists in formation of new chapters, and enables organizational growth with a commitment to educate, advocate, empower and inspire. In 2019, WIM USA broadened its mission to advocate for a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive mining industry workforce – a nod to the changing times globally and mining’s prioritization of sustainability across every level of the sector.