Women in PGMs – South African Chapter

Dear Women in PGMs members

We can’t believe it is the middle of the year already, we hope it has been a busy and rewarding year for our members so far!

2022 has been a busy year across the industry, including for the Women in PGMs team. Our flagship global event held in May during Platinum week was a great success and we really enjoyed seeing everyone in person again at the beautiful Fortnum and Mason. More on this will be included in our Summer newsletter, towards the end of July.

The SA Chapter has been growing, with a newly formed Chapter Committee we wanted to introduce you to.

As communicated last year, Emma Chapman joined as our SA Regional Chapter representative and we are excited to now announce that Nelsa Martins is joining to assist Kirthanya and Emma in growing the SA membership base and mentorship programme.

The SA chapter team will be represented by:

Nelsa’s Profile

Nelsa Martins has a bachelor’s degree of science and has worked in the mining industry, specifically in Smelting and Refining for 29 years for Lonmin Plc. Three years ago, she started a Consulting company, Solutions 4U, where she offers technical advice to organisations internationally on all aspects of metals processing from concentrating, smelting, refining, beneficiation and breakthrough technology in metals – like additive manufacturing, alloying and alternatives to pyro technology.

Nelsa has taken it upon herself to mentor up and coming individuals within the mining industry, imparting knowledge and leadership skills ensuring the continuous growth and development of young engineers and chemists.

The Committee has been working on a few ideas to increase the membership base and engagement in SA and wanted to give our members an update and invite you to share your thoughts with us as well.

SA Chapter Membership
The SA Chapter focus for the next few months will be on strengthening our membership base across the PGM industry value chain and furthering the mentoring programme to enable our SA members to access women across the globe in areas outside of the typical mining environment in South Africa. We believe our SA members will benefit greatly from interacting with our global members to be exposed to new and different areas across the value chain, and conversely, our global members will be able to access our SA members who are “at the coalface” of where it all begins in the PGM sector.

We are aiming to spend the next few weeks brainstorming with industry representatives on initiatives to reach and increase our member base in SA and will be reaching out to our current network and other organisations to promote WiPGMs in South Africa. We would love to engage with you if you have any ideas and if you are keen to be a part of this brainstorming, please let us know.

Mentorship programme
We also wanted to remind you of the Mentorship programme we conceptually launched at the end of 2021 and for which we are finalising the engagement framework. To date 42 of our 79 members have indicated that they are keen to be involved in the mentor programme, 11 of whom are based in South Africa. The expertise ranges from compliance to trading, fabrication to recycling. We encourage you to sign up and indicate if you would like to become a mentee or register your interest to be involved as a mentor. You can sign up on and provide your preferences by registering on the membership portal – https://www.wipgms.com/profile/register/

Please let us know specific topics you would like us to cover, you can contact us via email at info@wipgms.com or send a message through the website Contact us link.

We are hoping to hold an in-person launch event in the next few months, focussed on the unique opportunities and experiences of SA women in PGMs and transitioning to new roles. Details will follow and we would welcome any thoughts on specific topics or speakers you would like to see.

We look forward to hearing and engaging with all of you in the coming months!

Regards
The SA Chapter Team

Member Platform

Connect • Inspire • Succeed

We are developing a member platform which allows members and other interested parties to find specific women who have specific knowledge within the PGM value chain to mentor other aspiring candidates and create helpful connections.

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