LIBERTY Bell Bay’s Gender Diversity Champion

LIBERTY Bell Bay’s Michael Spicer was recently recognised at the 2021 Women in Resources Awards in the Gender Diversity Champion category.

In his role as Production Materials Movement Manager, Michael won the award for his tireless efforts to increase female participation in the workforce – increasing his team’s diversity to 50 per cent of leadership roles and 16 per cent overall female participation while simultaneously supporting the development of women in his team to advance with the company.

A small team from LIBERTY Bell Bay attended the award ceremony, hosted by the Tasmanian Minerals and Energy Council.

In accepting the award, Michael said he was proud to have supported and mentored women to achieve personal and professional excellence within the industry.

“The workforce has significantly changed over the years. When I started my career, the workforce was male-dominated, with a few women working in administrative roles on-site,” he said.
“The benefits of diversity are clear to me. There is more diverse thinking, we challenge each other, and we help each other. I have seen women grow and develop through increased and changing responsibilities and accountabilities.”

General Manager, Richard Curtis, said supporting diversity and gender equality in the workplace is at the heart of building and maintaining a vibrant workforce in the mining and resource sector.

“Critical positions are increasingly being filled by women. Our current apprenticeship program has female representation at 60 per cent and in 2021, 24 per cent of new team members were women,” he said.

“LIBERTY Bell Bay values diversity, equality, and inclusion as part of the Family values within the GFG Alliance and it is great to see Michael’s efforts in this area being acknowledged.
“I am pleased to say that I work in an increasingly gender diverse environment across all of our operations.”

The Women in Resources Awards reflect the breadth of talent, contribution, skill, and passion of women in Australia’s world-leading resources industry. The awards raise awareness of the diverse careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, as well as the trades and social sciences that exist in the resources sector for women.

Top picture: Michael Spicer with his award.
Left picture: General Manager, Richard Curtis and Michael Spicer