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.

Take the Pledge

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

Susan is a professional geologist with over 30 years of experience in exploration and mining including geological modelling, resource estimation, due diligence reviews and NI 43-101 reporting. Her career has included working at remote sites all over the world, with junior exploration firms to operating mines, large consulting firms, and ultimately the consulting firm she founded in 2006.
Susan founded the Me Too Mining Association to start the conversation about sexual violence, sexual harassment, harassment, bullying, intimidation and discrimination in the mining and mineral exploration industries and mining impacted communities. She was honoured in 2018 to be included in the Women in Mining (UK) 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining.

Julia Gartley

Vice President, Director, Mineral Process Engineer

Julia Gartley is a mining industry executive with over 17 years of experience in operations, corporate environments, and engineering consulting. Julia currently serves on the board of BBA Consultants, and Blackwolf Copper and Gold.
Julia is an active volunteer in the mining community, and in 2022 was a recipient of CIM’s Bedford Canadian Young Mining Leaders Award, which recognizes the exceptional achievement and potential of young leaders.

Chrissy Benz

Executive Director

Chrissy Benz is a visionary leader with an extraordinary blend of expertise in business management and a profound commitment to safety, inclusion, and workplace equity. Before joining the Mine Shift Foundation, she worked extensively with various non-profit organizations in international operations executive roles.
Through hosting international events, conferences and educational programming, Chrissy honed her skills in organizing and managing numerous projects of substantial magnitude. The experiences she gained during these ventures laid the foundation for her profound understanding of cross-cultural dynamics and the significance of fostering inclusive environments on a global scale.

Emily Fenton

Director, Geologist

Emily is an exploration geologist with over 7 years of experience in the mining industry, primarily focused on mineral exploration, target generation and brownfields diamond drilling. The majority of her career has been focused in field work, working in and overseeing various camps in British Columbia, Alberta, the Yukon, Minnesota and Sonora.
Emily brings a fresh perspective with a passion for social justice and strives to be a leader in creating positive change in workplace culture within the mining industries. Areas of focus include creating a safe workplace for all, gender diversity in the industry, and fighting discrimination.

Ali Shahkar

Director, Geological Engineer

Ali is geological engineer with over 25 years of experience in the exploration and mining industry. His career has taken him around the world, and he has worked on projects from grassroots exploration programs, feasibility stage studies through to operating mines. He co-founded Lions Gate Geological Consulting and completes geological modelling, mineral resource estimations and due diligence reviews.
Ali brings to the board a passion to help educate and empower all workers in mining with the skills to create safer and more respectful workplace cultures and mining impacted communities.