CIM Toronto Branch Luncheon with Marilyn Spink

Is Engineering a Commodity?

Marilyn Spink will be speaking on building a passionate case for taking the time to do the engineering well before putting a shovel in the ground. She walks the audience through several large complex global minerals projects she has been involved with over her 30 year career in the minerals industry and openly shares her lessons learned – the war wounds and the successes. Mine development has the potential to build wealth, but can also destroy capital, if the engineering, particularly process engineering, is not given the due diligence it deserves. Several resources and simple approaches are presented which can help ensure better project outcomes such as slowing down, creating a positive project team culture, “getting the right people on the bus”, rewarding desired behaviour – externally & internally, continuously educating our clients, transferring knowledge from grey hairs and investing in well thought out engineering workflows. What is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing and expecting different results. Can you imagine the wealth we could build in our industry if all stakeholders shifted their thinking to ensure the engineering phase was set up for success this time around?

Marilyn Spink

Ms. Spink, metallurgical and materials engineer, has worked to make the mining and minerals industry more equitable by championing successful women in the field. Ms. Spink’s CV boasts a very successful 30-year career with firms including Hatch, Golder and SNC Lavalin. active member of Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) and CIM for over 20 years, and was formerly the only female member of the PEO Council, about her experience in her male-dominated field at the 11th international Gender Summit. The summit, held in Montreal November 6-8, discussed inclusivity issues in academia, industry and government. While there are many fields in which there are gender imbalances, the mining industry has one of the widest gender gaps.