Canada's Top 100 Employers (2025) Magazine - Flipbook - Page 51
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Rio Tinto focuses on innovation and a net-zero future
B
efore Audrey Goulet began
working with Montréalbased Rio Tinto as a project
management consultant,
she knew nothing about mining.
“I thought it was just trucks, rocks
and conveyors, but once I got here, I
learned that it’s so much more,” she
says.
Rio Tinto is the largest mining
and metals company operating in
Canada. Previously, Goulet had
worked in the food industry, then
with an engineering consultant who
had mining clients. “When I worked
with Rio Tinto as a consultant, I
met so many interesting, talented,
knowledgeable people,” she says.
“Anyone who wants to move
the needle and have a direct
impact on sustainable mining
processes can do so here.”
— Marie-Pierre Paquin
Head of Science and Partnerships
It was a natural transition, then,
for Goulet to join Rio Tinto in 2018
on what was initially a one-year
contract that opened into a full-time
position at the company’s Boron,
Calif., office. Born and raised in
Québec, she was happy to return to
Sorel-Tracy, northeast of Montréal,
in 2021, where she knew most of the
team from her consultant work. Two
years later, she became a project
manager on the minerals process
decarbonization team.
Rio Tinto’s consistency in investing in innovation and R&D attracted
Marie-Pierre Paquin to the company
in 2003 – she felt it was a sign of a
company with a good long-term
vision. “We’re solving problems
we know we’re going to face in 10,
20, 30 years,” says Paquin, head of
science and partnerships. “My main
purpose is to look outside Rio Tinto
to find great innovations to help find
solutions to those challenges.”
Those challenges include climate
change, energy transition and more
sustainable mining, water and waste
processes. Rio Tinto is aiming to
have a net-zero carbon footprint by
2050. “As global natural deposits
decline in quality, we have to look at
other resources we can access and
be innovative in our approach to
extraction,” says Paquin, who has a
degree in metallurgy.
In Goulet’s current role, she works
with a small team on projects that
support Rio Tinto’s decarbonization
goals. “I couldn’t see the global
picture of what mining is, and what
it should and could be, until I moved
to this role,” she says. “My work has
developed into a passion – there isn’t
a day when I wake up and I don’t
want to come to work.”
Goulet has come a long way since
she envisioned mining as just trucks,
rocks and conveyors. “I now feel
like I can be a change agent because
we all need to be one if we want to
go where we want to go,” she says.
“If we do it right, others will likely
follow – we should be leading the
way of that change.”
Throughout her journey at Rio
Tinto, Goulet credits mentors with
helping her prepare for new roles
and projects. “Marie-Pierre is one of
them,” she says. “I saw immediately
that she was very knowledgeable,
and I’ve learned a lot from her, and
I still do.”
Paquin insists that it takes whole
Rio Tinto employees at its Arvida location in the Saguenay–LacSaint-Jean region of Québec.
teams to make things work – there
are roles in engineering, data
processing, metallurgy, physics, management, human resources, finance
and legal, among many others. “It’s
interesting work for everyone,”
she says. “We’re all contributing
toward finding solutions for the big
challenges that humanity faces right
now, including climate change and
the energy transition.”
The world is moving away from
18
weeks paid parental leave for
birth/adoption for both parents
fossil fuels and turning toward
metals used in everything from
batteries and solar panels to wind
turbines and mobile phones. “In
order to mine metals at the speed
required in a sustainable way, we
need all the brainpower that can be
put toward these challenges,” says
Paquin. “Anyone who wants to move
the needle and have a direct impact
on sustainable mining processes can
do so here.” ¢
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