Sherri Crothers has mining in her blood but her heart is with the indigenous communities around De Beers Canada’s Victor mine.
I started with De Beers’ Victor mine as an Impact Benefit Agreement coordinator in 2005, just before construction of the mine began. I was part of the team that worked with the indigenous communities on the agreements that outline our responsibilities and how they can share in the benefits of the mine operation.
Ontario’s first and only diamond mine was a significant deal for the Province. I remember thinking I’d like to be a part of that history. Also, as the daughter of a miner, I’d been in the mining industry my entire life – although never in diamond mining.
Since I started at Victor mine, I’ve been an IBA coordinator, Accountant and Contract Specialist. Two years ago, I transitioned to the role of Superintendent of Indigenous Relations and Sustainability, which has now been transformed into the Superintendent of Social Performance. De Beers has always invested in me to ensure I’ve had the right training.
I manage the implementation of IBAs with four communities. This covers a range of issues, such as ensuring mine activity has as little effect on their social and cultural values as possible, providing first right of refusal for employment opportunities, promoting the development of business skills, providing educational programmes, and increasing the welfare of the communities.
My job is special because I’m given the chance to go above and beyond the IBA guidelines. So, in promoting literacy for example, my colleagues and I have championed the Books in Homes programme. We have bought, delivered and read thousands of books for children: the look on their faces and their happiness in owning books is extremely rewarding.
Although mining has always been a male-dominated industry, I personally have never felt any effects of that working at Victor, but I’m very pleased to play a role in our diversity and inclusion programme that is making a difference for women working for De Beers. The Group’s partnership with UN Women is also a very positive step.
Along with the opportunities, I’d have to say our safety culture makes De Beers a special company to work for. It is second to none. Victor mine has won the John T Ryan award for the safest mine in the nation for two successive years. We have also just announced that we won the award again for the Eastern Region for 2017 – which is a strong statement considering the team knows we’re closing but is maintaining our safety culture. This is particularly important to me as my spouse Stephen and father Albert also work at the mine.
Victor mine will close in early 2019, once the existing open pit is depleted. It’ll be a sad time, but I want to play a role in this important step. We do operations very well, so I want to help ensure we also do closure well. After that, I’ll see where the opportunities will take me. I’m sure there are exciting times ahead.
Family is very important to me and luckily I have a strong family support system in place to help us all to be able to work at the same mine. Working at Victor has always been busy but it seems more so now that we are working on closure. Since family is so important, we make sure we have quality time together, if we can’t have quantity.
During our quality time, we are outside as much as possible and we spend time in fast cars, classic cars, on motorcycles, four-wheelers, dirt bikes and travelling. We’re avid F1 and MotoGP fans and enjoy watching the races in person.