Supporting women in Metals & Energy Finance

Pictured L-R: Noreen Doyle, Newmont; Elise Mutschler, BMO Scholar; Aine O’Flynn, BMO; Martha Vallance, BMO.

Since 2015, the Bank of Montreal has provided an annual scholarship for women on the Metals and Energy Finance MSc.

The Master’s is a unique joint programme run by the Department of Earth Science and Engineering and the Imperial College Business School. This year’s BMO Scholar, Elise Mutschler, was invited to the BMO Capital Markets 28th Global Metals & Mining Conference in Miami.

Elise especially enjoyed this conference, in which she gained an exposure to 200 companies working in the metals & mining area, as well as attending conferences about hot topics such as the shift in the precious metals market in the context of a rising demand in batteries. “The conference was a great opportunity to discover international relations behind metals finance”, Elise said, and she was inspired by the professionalism and the humanism of the members of the conference.

Prior to the Master’s programme, Elise had followed electrical engineering studies where she developed an interest in the energy markets. She wanted to complete her education with a Master’s degree abroad that would open up new opportunities. Elise found that the Metals & Energy Finance MSc at Imperial College London seemed to perfectly meet her needs: a course that would combine and link the technical aspect of the energy and metals extraction industries with financial courses.

As part of the teaching delivery, Elise also took part in a field trip in South Africa to visit different industrial processes and mines. Through this experience, all of the Metals & Energy Finance students got a real grasp of the challenges that the men and women working in this industry face every day on the field and the offices. “It really helped us understand the industry in which most of us will spend our professional life after education.”

South Africa Excursion

The 2018-19 cohort of MSc Metals and Energy Finance students has just returned from their two-week excursion to active mining operations in South Africa. This started with visit a to De Beers’ Venetia mine which provided not just an insight into a kimberlitic diamond operation but the critical timing involved in the transition from open pit to underground mining. 

The students were deeply impressed with the level of sophistication involved in a modern open pit at Anglo American’s Mogalakwena platinum mine and visited modern mechanised underground mining operations at Northam’s  Booysendal platinum and Anglo American’s flagship Zibulo coal mines. The trip ended with DRDGOLD who provided students with a fresh perspective to the gold tailings reclamation business.

Find out more about the Metals and Energy Finance MSc