The mining industry is in the midst of a period of significant growth driven by meaningful underlying supply-demand trends for metals and minerals. The last five years have seen mining companies emerge from the global pandemic into an environment where capital has become more readily available for expansions and new builds in a way it simply wasn’t in the preceding years of commodity market headwinds. And current geopolitics only reinforces a bullish view of continued growth over the short-to-medium term.
Board composition dynamics have also shifted in recognition of these trends. An increase in mining industry experience – particularly technical and/or operating expertise – stands as the most notable theme we encountered in our most recent review of non-executive director appointments to North American mining boards. While diversity considerations remain important, the major push we saw in the previous period towards greater gender diversity among new directors appears to have plateaued.
Findings
We examined more than 200 non-executive board appointments over the last five years made by a sample group of the 45 largest North American-based mining companies. This was an update of a comparable study completed in 2020 that examined the 2016-2020 period. Major highlights include:
71%
Mining industry experience is more important now. 71% of new directors come directly from the industry, with backgrounds either as executives in operating companies or from service/advisory/financing firms focused principally on supporting mining industry clients. This is a notable increase from the previous period where barely half of the appointments (53%) had mining backgrounds. It no doubt reflects the recognition by boards of the need for a higher level of industry familiarity and credibility as capital budgets expanded over the last five years. Comparable to 2020, the most common industry to draw from outside of mining is oil & gas, due principally to its similar global, capital-intensive nature.
35%
Operational/Technical expertise is also increasingly valued. 35% of new appointments have a strong operating/technical background (including a few whose expertise comes principally from relevant adjacent industries like oil & gas). This represents another notable increase from 2020 (27%) and serves as a continuation of a trend we’ve observed since the peak of the previous commodity cycle. Many investors have explicitly called for more operational/technical expertise on mining company boards; that message for the most part appears to have been received.
90%
“Traditional” mining countries continue to dominate. 90% of new directors come from Canada (48%), the US (22%), Australia (8%), UK (8%) or South Africa (4%), with the vast majority of these individuals currently resident in North America. This remains a somewhat surprising finding given the geographic diversity of most companies’ mining assets and the vital role that host jurisdictions play in their development, operation and regulation. Similar to 2020, only 7% of new appointments are from Latin America even though more than 70% of the companies have meaningful assets in that region.
51%
Diversity remains significant but extends now beyond gender. There was a slight decline in female director appointments from 55% in the 2020 study to 51% in the current one. However, all but two boards in the sample now have at least three female board members and meet a 30% gender diversity threshold, with total female representation currently accounting for 43% of all non-executive board directors. It is further interesting to note that of the 21 board chair appointments over the past five years, eight (38%) are women. With regard to other elements of diversity, it should be pointed out that visible minorities increased to 22% of new appointments in 2020-2025 as compared to 13% in the previous study.
59
New directors are slightly older. Whereas the average age of a new director was 57 over the 2016-2020 period, more recent appointments have an average age of 59. Female directors however continue to have a younger average age at appointment; indeed, 18 of 19 youngest appointments are female (including the only one younger than 40).
Other Observations
Growth themes generally have been more prominent in terms of how boards are looking at the expertise needed to deliver on their governance requirements and better support management. Besides an increase in directors appointed with meaningful capital projects experience, we also saw more interest in director candidates with strong capital markets credentials as well as those with proven exploration track records (including a notable increase in the appointment of geologists). We expect this trend to continue.
By contrast, we haven’t seen many dedicated “ESG Director” slots on company boards. From our analysis, we could identify only a handful of appointments of individuals where their primary expertise lay in ESG-focused functional areas. On the one hand, this is somewhat surprising given the extraordinary amount of time and resources the mining industry has devoted to ESG concerns and related compliance requirements over the past five years. On the other, one common view heard around the boardroom table on this topic is that while these skills are undoubtedly important, strong executive leaders – particularly those who have recently come from relatively hands-on operational assignments – frequently bring the needed expertise with them around relations with host communities and regulators.
Looking Forward
A number of questions emerge as we contemplate how mining company board composition will evolve over the next several years. These include:
- Given current geopolitical trends driving increased demand for metals and minerals deemed “critical”by national governments and supporting the acceleration generally of permitting timelines, will mining companies look to ensure that their boards have a deeper appreciation for political and public policy/regulatory decision-making? Will a higher priority be placed on explicit political connections or is the risk associated with choosing someone whose network may fall out of favour too high?
- More generally, will boards seek greater representation from the host communities/ jurisdictions in which they operate?
- Is the retrenchment towards greater industry experience on mining boards a longer term phenomenon or will we see a shift back towards a greater mix of different (if related) industry backgrounds and perspectives in future appointments?
- Are technology-savvy directors likely to be in greater demand given the impact of AI and related innovation trends on the mining industry?
- Does a greater emphasis on operations/technical credentials prove to be a potential headwind for increased diversity on mining boards given the realities of the talent pools for this expertise?
- Will other elements of diversity beyond gender gain traction as meaningful considerations in future board appointments?
We will continue to follow these topics and others as the mining industry confronts the extraordinary growth opportunity in front of it over the coming months and years.
Notes on the market sample: This analysis reviewed all independent, non-executive board director appointments made by the largest mining companies (by marcap) based in Canada and the US over the last five years, i.e. July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2025. The sample includes the 30 largest precious metals companies, 10 largest non-precious metals companies and five largest streaming/royalty companies. 204 director appointments in total were reviewed over this period, representing 58% of all current independent directors at these companies. (Directors who joined a board, typically as a result of a transaction, and left shortly thereafter are not included.)