Production Manager Carina Steyn works with a team of highly skilled diamond sorters – and she likes to make a joyful noise…
Carina Steyn works at De Beers Global Sightholder Sales (DBGSS) in Gaborone.
How long have you been with De Beers Group and in what roles?
I joined De Beers Group in Kimberley, South Africa, in 1994 after school. I started my career as a rough diamond sorter and after six years applied for a role as a training assistant in sorting. In 2000, I took responsibility for the training department, having completed the occupational training qualifications. After 15 years of training, I moved into the role of Production Manager for the Canadian Department in De Beers Global Sightholder Sales (DBGSS) in Gaborone, a post I still hold.
What exactly does your current role involve?
The production from the Group’s two mines in Canada (Gahcho Kué and Victor) are processed, end to end, by our production team in DBGSS. I work with a team of highly skilled rough diamond sorters, responsible for the sorting of all sizes 10.80 carats and below across an average of 12,000 different categories. Our team also comprises operators working with a series of specially developed machines that support the sorting functions in sizes smaller than 0.66 carats where the production volumes are too high to sort everything by hand.
What do you like most about your work?
De Beers Group is a leader in the diamond industry, and a dynamic company that has undergone many changes since I started. Learning is an ongoing process in the company, with new challenges arising on a regular basis that force you to stretch and test your own abilities, and tap into the expertise of people around you. And, of course, what really makes our journey in life worthwhile is the wonderful people we get to engage with daily, and which makes coming to work a pleasure.
What are the main challenges you face as a woman in mining?
I think the mining industry itself has embraced the concept of women in mining. In De Beers Group in particular, I see women taking the lead in various aspects of operations. Perhaps the challenges in the modern business world sits on a more personal level, around individuals who may still hold strong beliefs in terms of women in the workplace rather than in the industry itself. I have personally not experienced any such challenges in my career.
I love what I do. Diamonds are exciting. In my personal world, my glass is usually at least three-quarters full. Work-life balance is probably the closest I will come to a challenge at work. It is important to give your best at work every day, but also to nurture relationships and interests outside work in recognition of who we are and what we need as individuals to make us ‘complete’. Finding ways to do so always makes me realise how precious time is, and how important it is to make every second in life count.
What advice would you give a woman considering joining the mining industry?
The mining industry is broad and offers a huge scope of careers and opportunities in which women can grow and excel, especially with technology and new ideas revolutionising the core industry. It is also one of the industries that has a huge array of related business functions, such as health and safety and a consideration towards our impact on the environment, so it really offers a variety of business and career interests worth considering by women and men alike.
How do you like to spend your spare time?
I love spending as much time as possible with my husband, Freddie, and daughter, Mari, who’s six, and fortunately we all share a love for music. As such, we try to make time to make a joyful noise together as often as we can. Luckily, my neighbours have not complained yet! I also have a weakness for a good book, fiction or non-fiction, and e-readers are high up on my list of ‘best things ever invented’.