Miner hires two female assistants

TWO women from the local landowner villages in the Wafi-Golpu gold and copper project in Morobe province have become the first to be recruited as field assistants with the Morobe Mining Joint Venture’s (MMJV) geology department.
Karen Willie and Eliza­beth Girinde were now part of a team of local field assistants who came from the two landowner groups of Yanta and Hengambu.
Willie is from Gingen village while Girinde hails from Pekumbe village.
Girinde is a certified automotive mechanic but is expanding her horizon beyond vehicle engine to rocks while Willie was educated to Grade 11 level.
They are now working with rock samples from drill rigs (cores) and sampling them – this area of work was called core logging.
They worked as field assistants under experienced geologists.
MMJV said their recruitment underpinned one of the JV’s aims to create equal employment opportunities for local women in all areas of its operations at the Hidden Valley mine, in its explorations activities and the Wafi-Golpu project.
“Having no prior knowledge of this field, Elizabeth and Karen are finding it very interesting and are determined to learn.
“Since joining the all male team on Nov 7, the two are learning fast and relishing the challenge,” the company said.
“Their main daily task is to help with geotechnical logging that specifically involves taking measurements which will be used for the calculation of core recovery and rock quality designation.
“All the data that is gathered from the logging is stored on laptops using the Logchief software. In addition, they will also be required to do all tasks involved in core processing at the core-shed,” MMJV said.
“It is very interesting work … we are enjoying it and as we gain more experience we hope we can contribute more,” the women said.
Project geologist Mashiyyat Wima said the department wanted to provide equal opportunities for both men and women from the landowner villagers to work as field assistants.
“We only had males and thought: why could we not have females? We wanted field assistants with at least Grade 10 and above, and being a female should not keep them from becoming field assistants if they met the requirements,” Wima said.
“During the first week, Elizabeth and Karen learnt quickly and are already proving to be of great help in our core shed.
“They are also outgoing and are getting on very well with their male counterparts
“As the women grow with experience, at some point they will be required from time to time to work at the rig sites in order to collect quality data,” Wima said.