Board directors
Years of experience
The average age of mining directors is 60.7, which is very similar to the average age of
60.1 for ASX 300 directors in Australia, for example, as well as the average age of UK
directors, which is 61.
51.5
the lowest average age for board members within a single company
70
the highest average age for board members within a single company
The average age of board chairs is 63.6, one company (Southern Copper) has the oldest board member, aged 86, as well as the youngest male board member, aged 37. The youngest female board member is aged 36, at Tianqi Lithium.
Mining company chairs and non-executives spend an average of 5.9 years in their seat. By
contrast, there is an average tenure of 7.8 years in companies in the US S&P 500. Directors in TSX company boards in Canada stay in post for an average 7 years, whereas their counterparts in the UK’s FTSE 100 companies stay for an average 4.2 years.
Company board average tenure (years)
The tenure of a mining director often hinges on the ownership structure of the company
they are working for. The directors of family-owned mining businesses, for example, often
stay on the board well past traditional retirement ages, whereas publicly listed mining
companies typically avoid this scenario by having fixed terms for directors.
Regardless of the type of ownership structure, it is vital that mining companies strike an
appropriate balance of experience on their board. While newer arrivals can provide a burst of
energy and fresh thinking, boards also require the perspectives of those directors who have
been in their roles during previous business cycles, both the good and the more challenging.
New directors
of board members are women
first-time new board members
of first-time new board members are women
There were 58 new board members appointed between May 31, 2022 and May 31, 2023.
Forty percent of these new board members were women and 43% had a different nationality to their company.
Gender and nationality
of mining boards now have at least 30% female directors
of mining company board committees have female chairs
Mining companies have an average of 4.5 board committees
There is no question that mining companies have, like those in many other industries,
struggled to improve the gender balance across their workforce. Mining companies have
been more successful in attracting women into non-executive roles than they have in
increasing the number of women in the executive ranks.
We found that there are now 84 female directors in the mining companies in our survey, representing 31.5% of all board members. This is a slightly lower percentage than in Australia, where female representation on ASX 300 boards has risen to 35% — an 80% increase since 2016. In Canada, women hold almost 30% of board seats among TSXlisted companies, and in the US, female directors now account for 33% of all S&P 500 directors. And in FTSE 100 companies in the UK, the proportion of board seats held by women is now 40%.
The proportion of women on company boards
We also found that 38.6% of mining board members have a different nationality to their
company, with 32 nationalities represented across the 50 companies in our sample.
Mining companies have long recognized the importance of greater gender equality at both board and operational level. This underlines the importance of effective long-term succession planning to improve diversity levels, setting intentional objectives and building early and diverse leadership pipelines. They also need to maintain the diversity of the candidate pool right up through selection, balance critical career experience with assessment for potential, mitigate bias and provide post-selection support for success.