About Us

Our Story

Mine Shift was created to facilitate a conversation about sexual violence, sexual harassment, bullying, racism, and intimidation experienced by workers in Mining, Mineral Exploration and Mining Impacted Communities.

Mine Shift developed the Allyship and Bystander Intervention based training workshop to empower workers to address inappropriate workplace behaviours that happen to them or in their presence and contribute to a positive workplace culture shift.

Mine Shift provides a safe and inclusive space for all. We encourage open dialogue about difficult and traumatic experiences, shedding light on the darker corners of our lives. Our mission is to foster healing, share burdens, connect individuals with resources, build a supportive community, drive cultural change, prevent violence and harm, and empower everyone to move their lives forward. Together, let's create a brighter future.

Mine Shift Foundation is a registered non-profit society that started as the Me Too Mining Association (MTMA) in the spring of 2018 with a series of social media posts to start the conversation about sexual assault and sexual harassment experienced by women in the mining industry and mining-impacted communities. Those early postings evolved into presentations at the CIM and Society of Economic Geologists (SEG) conferences that year and many media stories including with CIM magazine, CBC Radio, BNN, Mining Magazine and the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business Magazine.

The conversation was started and so many people shared their stories but they often ended in, “I didn’t know what to do!” or “What should I have done?”. Our founder, Susan Lomas, took a year off from her geology consulting work and dove into finding answers and solutions for those who needed guidance. The most practical solution was to empower workers with active bystander intervention strategies so they would know what to do when an incident happened to them or a coworker. We developed a workshop around allyship and bystander intervention strategies and called it the DIGGER Program.

MTMA gave its first DIGGER workshop at the CIM conference in 2019. Yran L. Santana, General Manager, Montali in Peru wrote,

When I attended the course, honestly I expected to meet more women than men but I was surprised to be part of that homogeneous group of ladies and gentlemen, all professionals of the mining industry. We learned to identify and intervene, being an active bystander. We learned how that affects productivity and impact in the short and long term for our companies and our industry, and how affects the mining industry's reputation. Susan Lomas and Julia Gartley presented pertinent information and indicators from Canada and from around the world. Personally, apologize for my ignorance, I was impressed by those numbers.”

Over the years, the organization has grown and evolved. We listened to stories of men who have also experienced workplace sexual assault and harassment and expanded our scope. We learned from people in the LGTBQ+ community and the experiences of people from diverse cultures and races and created a much more inclusive and intersectional approach to our organization and our resources. We are always improving and adding new data, case studies and actions to the DIGGER Workshop so we can bring the latest and industry-relevant information to empower workers with the tools to deal with the multitude of inappropriate workplace behaviours, including sexual assault, sexual harassment, bullying and racism.

Since our first course in 2019 we have taught our workshop at Laurentian University and Mining Matters. In 2022 we rebranded MTMA to the Mine Shift Foundation, PDAC Association, Teck, Rio Tinto, Snowline Resources and various publicly accessible online workshops.

In total, since its inception, DIGGER training has been given to over 600 people and we continue to expand our reach and impact.

Mission

Raise awareness of harassment and assault in the mining industry and empower workers to address and prevent abuse through bystander intervention and allyship training.

Vision

A mining industry free of all forms of harassment.

Values

Accountability

Allyship

Courageous Leadership

Empathy

Empowerment

Why Mine Shift?

The DIGGER training program stands out as a one-of-a-kind initiative tailored specifically for the mining industry, crafted by industry professionals themselves.

Our workshops offer an engaging and immersive learning experience using interactive exercises and customizable elements to incorporate input from your company or organization within a safe and intimate group setting.

Meet Our Executive Team

Susan Lomas

Founder, President, Geologist

Julia Gartley

Vice President, Director, Mineral Process Engineer

Chrissy Benz

Executive Director

Emily Fenton

Director, Geologist

Ali Shahkar

Director, Geological Engineer

Trusted by mining and exploration companies globally

Want to help support our mission?

As a non-profit association, we can:

Attend Conferences so students, mining and mineral exploration workers and companies are aware of our organization.

Host discussions to continue the conversation around appropriate behaviour in the workplace.

Activate bystanders so everyone can speak up when inappropriate behaviours happen to them or in their presence.

Develop Policy, Procedure and Training recommendations for Companies to adopt and grow safe, inclusive and respectful workplaces

We need your help to do this, no matter how big or small, every donation moves us forward.