Image: Heather at Wharariki Beach (Golden Bay) with her two daughters Lucy and Ruby.
Heather McKay, Westland Mineral Sands Environment and Sustainability Group General Manager, says providing for our communities and enhancing the natural environment don’t necessarily have to be in competition with each other, writes Jane Warwick.
It’s little wonder Heather – who grew up surrounded by the fresh water springs, golden dunes, untouched beaches, bird sanctuaries, dramatic rocky arches, deep cool caves, waterfalls, and cool green bush of Golden Bay – should spend her life caring for the environment, even if that means working for a mining company.
Of course, when you’ve wrangled two children into their teenage years and worked alongside your husband in the demanding task of dairy farming, it sets a woman up for just about anything.
Mining is a much maligned and often misunderstood industry that can bring out huge emotions in people over disruption to the landscape – real or imagined – but if someone as environmentally conscious as Heather can find a desk in such an industry, surely that invites a deeper look.
She has turned it into quite some desk, which is reflected in her recent recognition at the Komatsu New Zealand Women in Extractives Awards. Heather was named Institute of Quarrying New Zealand Leader of the Year for her work as Group General Manager Environment and Sustainability at Westland Mineral Sands.
WMS is a prime example of the value of mining. “Most people have no idea,” she says, “that minerals from heavy mineral sands can end up in so many places – electric vehicles, paint, toothpaste, makeup, medical uses, solar panels, and more.”
Of course, that’s not news to Q&M readers, but it’s the message Heather must get across.
“The challenge,” she says, “is navigating our way, from whatever perspective, through the various regulations and requirements to achieve [target] outcomes, bringing the community on the journey, and making sure we always uphold environmental practices and credentials.”
And this – resource and environmental management, agriculture and leadership – ‘more or less’ covers what Heather has been doing for more than 15 years, although it was nearly 20 years ago that she started working in the mining team for the Department of Conservation. Now with WMS, she’s experiencing the mining sector from a private business perspective.
“It’s not really a surprise,” she says, “but my observation is that there are fantastic people working both directly within mining, and within all those agencies that mining intersects with, and actually, largely we have very similar aims.”
In those prior years she worked for district and regional councils on the West Coast, as well as in the agricultural sector, both Coast-based and in a national role. That means she’s more highly qualified and more astute than most when it comes to making comparisons between the public and the private sectors.
One thing that the sectors do share, however, is the assumption that women play a particular role.
Heather recalls, as Consents and Compliance Manager at the West Coast Regional Council, arriving at a mine site for an annual visit with a male compliance officer in her team.
“We did a quick round of introductions (without job titles), then hopped in vehicles to drive around the site. The person I was sitting next to in the vehicle turned to me and said, ‘Oh, so … is your boss then?’ ‘Um, no actually, it’s the other way around,’” she says.
“More recently, when asked by someone non-related to the industry what I do for a job, I replied that I work for a mining company based on the West Coast.
“Their next comment was, ‘So you do the administration, the books and things then.’ While these situations just make me laugh quietly to myself, they also remind me how prevalent assumptions still are.
“That’s why things like the Women in Extractives event is important – to help the great women in our industry be seen and supported to thrive.”
You might think working in the mining industry, dairy farming, being a wife and mother (where sometimes rounding up the three in the house is harder than rounding up the herd in the field), might be more than enough, but Heather often has a voluntary role of some sort going on alongside work.
Most recently, that was as Associate Board Member with Rural Women NZ and, she ponders, who knows what other opportunities might pop up to contribute to something interesting and meaningful along the way.
That ‘way’ has also made space for a couple of overseas holidays. More travel, locally and offshore, is definitely on the list.
In the pristine rainforest of the West Coast, sometimes the world has sorely encroached – not least upon the rowi and Haast tokoeka kiwi that are clinging onto their existence. It’s not just those wee national icons – who are we without them? – but all of us who benefit from responsible and sustainable land use.
That balance is important to Heather. “We can provide for our communities and enhance the natural environment,” she says, “and these things do not necessarily have to be in competition with each other.”
So, Heather just quietly gets on with it, no fanfare, no overt displays – just someone doing their best to make a positive difference, as most of us do.