Ana Maria Aranibar

I didn’t come to mining by a direct route as I was studying communication sciences at university. During my third year of studies I had a great opportunity and was offered the job of press officer at the ministry of mining here in Bolivia. I calculated that I’ve been working in the industry for 40 years now!

I started working in the sector when I was very young but my experience has been very gratifying because I worked with two generations. The older generation made up of men who held the most important jobs like minister, deputy minister etc. Then there were the juniors and amongst those I was the most junior. I had to learn from them all. They had years of experience and were hugely interesting people.

I’ve never felt discriminated against as a woman. The mining sector in Bolivia is small and we all know each other. Personally I’ve always felt well treated as a woman.

But I can’t say that this experience is the same for all women in the sector or for female miners. I travelled and visited many mines in my role as Director of Information and then I discovered that the artisanal and small-scale female miners working in cooperatives were completely discriminated against.

I’ve always been a very busy and active person.

When I was in the mining industry I always wrote a lot and I produced the Mining Bulletin which featured updates on everything going on in the sector and around the companies who were operating in it.

I also created an information network for mining and metallurgists which was funded by the World Bank, sharing information about the sector. This was quite innovative for Bolivia.

I was able to marry my experience of information, education and writing with mining knowledge when I left the government sector and set up my consultancy Cumbre del Sajama 20 years ago. My life took on a new course. We gave a hard social look at mining, at small-scale mining, at miners’ rights. Large scale mining is run quite differently.

No, sadly Camila nothing has changed. And as everything is about prices nationally and internationally, the women become involved in mining when the situation is critical.

And now we are in a low price environment it means that more women will enter small scale mining. The discrimination continues. Violence, the lack of women’s rights these all go on today, as before. There’s still a lot of work to do.

For small and large-scale mining companies they have to meet international standards. But let’s not say they go out of their way to help women they just meet standards they should, so there is a benefit here. But this does not happen in communities where small-scale mining occurs because there are no corporate social responsibility programmes.

Although the cooperatives should have social programmes they don’t exist. And what does the government do? Well its reach is not that far. The state often struggles to get the cooperatives to meet laws around labour or environmental controls and much less for social programmes which include women’s rights.

The small-scale sector is not formal and many of the women move around from one region to another to find work so it’s not easy for them to organise themselves either.

I wrote a book about this called “Mujeres de oro, quienes son” (Who are the women of gold). Their labour rights are infringed because their rights and access to the tailings or the ore is discriminated against. These women are also not allowed to go underground.

There are two big groups with differing experiences: Professional women who are involved in large-scale mining and small-scale female miners where there’s more conflict and who are subjected to violence. Many artisanal female miners hide the violence and don’t want to admit that it’s going on.

In Bolivia and elsewhere in Latin America many women in both groups suffer discrimination because of the machismo of the culture.

We tried to do a census three years ago in Bolivia and we estimated there were 10,000 female artisanal miners and around 50,000 in Latin America. There are no official figures.

My first was learning the terminology and technical language of geology and mining. That was a challenge. I had to study the different terms and processes but it was very satisfying to do this.

What most interests me is that small scale mining be formalised and that models and companies be created. I would like the sector to be organised so that men and women and their communities benefit and grow as a result of it.

Small-scale mining is here to stay for the next 10-15 years and so it should be sustainable and responsible. That is my goal and there are changes being made. Things are not so disorganised and communities are benefitting.

There is a lot done around ethical gold but why just think about gold what about wolframite, lead and other metals?

The government will need to do things. There’s an interest on the part of the state but so far only small steps have been taken. The state is getting into the areas of contamination, health and safety. There are possibilities but they need to keep going and it will take time.

I’ve been in this sector for 40 years and it is part of my life. We have helped many young people and my company will continue without me.

What I would like is to do something at the Universities — offer a technical module. I would like to give some module on responsible mining as we don’t offer that as part of our courses here in Bolivia. I would like to teach. I have all this experience and I’d like to share it so that others can continue with it.

Yes I’ve had several at different stages of my life.

Dr Jaime Villlalobos who was an extraordinary man who motivated me to get involved with many networks, with creating them and to help prevent conflicts and deaths in mining.

Another of my mentors was Els Van Hoeke who came to Bolivia many years ago and was involved in Women in Mining.

I am the president of the Bolivian business women’s association. It’s an uphill struggle for women entrepreneurs in Bolivia, or for women who start up their own company across any sector be it tea or quinoa.

You have to be a fighter!

I am against quotas as I think we can participate without them.

But for women in small-scale mining or women who are less educated and at lower levels in companies they need help and quotas.

Yes, I do think women in mining groups have a role to play in enhancing the image of the industry and certainly from personal experience, having had increasing numbers of female voices on some issues has definitely improved the “quality of life” in the mining workplace.

Be prepared! And be prepared if you are looking for frontline job at a mine that conditions can be inclement and hard.

There are hardly any women involved in studying mining at university and this is a shame most are focused on hydrocarbons.

When I had my kids and they were young I thought it was normal to go and run all over the place. I was the campaigning mother. I think the cost to your personal life is heavy and you do lose things in your private life. I am passionate about my work and I think I have sacrificed a lot to work. It is not easy to manage this balance.

I think it’s always important to think about the message and your objective. I would like there to be a national network of women in mining and for women’s’ work to be highlighted and for us to see what options women have. We have to build and grow those networks and keep pushing ahead.