Self-styled 'over-educated geopreneur' makes mark in male-dominated field
March 4, 2020
In an industry dominated by males, Shastri Ramnath has emerged as a powerful gender balance promoter.
Four years ago, females accounted for just 16 per cent of mining employment compared with 48 per cent for other sectors in Canada.
Moving the needle for women in the sector is a priority for Ramnath who is the Co-founder & Non-Executive Chair of Orix Geoscience Inc. and the Chief Executive Officer, President & Director of Exiro Minerals Corp.
The mineral exploration geologist & executive understands why women have struggled to penetrate the field.
“A big part of that, historically, has been the travelling,” said Ramnath who a year ago was appointed to Havilah Mining Board of Directors and granted 175,000 options to purchase common shares of the company. “You have to go into the field for about three to six months at a time and be away from your family. It’s a lot different now with shorter rotations and I believe in 20 years from now, there will be more females than male geologists because of the nature of what we do. The natural talents that women have, like the ability to organize and be diligent in pouring through information while multi-tasking all at the same time, apply to geology.”
Born and raised in Manitoba, which is home to several active mines, combined with her father’s guidance led Ramnath to gravitate to the sector.
Departing Trinidad & Tobago in 1969, Jerome Ramnath dabbled in mining stocks and encouraged the eldest of his four children to take a geology course while she was pursuing an undergraduate degree at the University of Manitoba in the mid-1990s.
“I was already doing Physics, Calculus and all the hard stuff,” she recounted. “I took geology as a side course and I got a ‘B’. That led me to thinking I could be a geologist. The lucky part for me is that it is the exact science I needed to be in, which is a science that is a little bit of all the others, but is also about been creative.”
Graduating with a B.Sc. in Geological Sciences in 1999, Ramnath started her career as an Associate Geologist at Falconbridge Ltd. in Winnipeg where her responsibilities included regional and geological mapping and performing environmental assessments of drill sites.
After completing a Master’s in Exploration Geology at Rhodes University in South Africa, she returned to Falconbridge before joining Quadra FNX Mining Ltd. in August 2002 as an Area Geologist for Special Projects. She did animation compilations and geological interpretation and was a key member of the exploration and resource team that discovered the Victoria Deposit in Sudbury that helped grow the firm from a $200 million exploration company to a $3.5 billion miner.
“Early in my career, I interpreted what is below the surface which meant I would actually hand draft sections and draw what we think the geology looks like,” she said. “Based on my drawings, we would then form 3D models for underground, whether it was for mining or exploration.”
Observing that most of her peers had Master’s degrees in Sciences, Ramnath enrolled in Athabasca University’s Executive Master of Business Administration (MBA) program in 2008.
“As a Geologist, I thought that would set me apart as I didn’t want to hit that ceiling,” she said. “I wanted to move on in companies and be successful.”
The first day in one of her last classes, ‘Entrepreneurial & Visionary Thinking’, was a life-changer.
“The lecturer started off by saying that successful entrepreneurs are often children of immigrants because their parents, in order to make ends meet, run entrepreneurial businesses while ensuring their children get an education,” she recalled. “My dad owned homes that were rented to make extra money. The professor then went on to talk about people who are entrepreneurial in organizations and I said, ‘that’s me’, as I am always coming up with new ways and ideas. When the talk turned to education suppressing entrepreneurs, a light bulb went off.
“The reason, I believe, education suppresses entrepreneurs is because in society, people with degrees get a level of social status. So what happens is that you don’t have to prove to the world the same way that someone who may not have an education does and become a successful entrepreneur.”
Obtaining an MBA in 2012 was the impetus for the self-styled ‘over-educated geopreneur’ to start a business.
Just three months after graduation, Ramnath quit as President and Chief Executive Officer of Bridgeport Ventures (they merged with Premier Royalty in 2012) which she had helped raise $17.5 million and acquire 10 projects in Nevada and, with Ashley Kirwan and Paige Giddy, founded Orix Geoscience Inc. to provide 3D geological consulting services to exploration and mining companies to give them a better understanding of the geology and exploration potential of projects, deposits and mines.
Roxgold Inc., which at the time was the best performing stock on the TSX-Venture exchange and had a new discovery in Burkina Faso, was their first client.
“We started the company because we wanted to do geology and enjoy what we do,” said Ramnath who, in 2019, was honoured with Athabasca’s Rising Star Alumni Award. “Although we saw a business niche, we built it on corporate culture which is important to me because I want to come to work every day and enjoy being here. When you are in this space, you are also safe and can be yourself.”
Six years ago, Orix partnered with Sprott USA and Haywood Securities to create Exiro Minerals Corp. which is a junior exploration company focused on project generation that combines technology with traditional exploration methodologies.
While mining companies rely on digital innovation to enhance productivity, Exiro is using human intelligence to interpret and record old paper exploration files.
“We believe that most of the world’s exploration data is in pieces of paper,” Ramnath, who stepped down as Orix’s CEO in 2017 and was replaced by Kirwan, pointed out. “There’s a place for artificial intelligence and machine learning which most of the focus is on. However, there’s a pile of information locked up in pieces of paper in attics, basements and warehouses that are not been tapped into as efficiently as we can as an industry”
In September 2018, Exiro – which helps employees pay off their student debts -- opened a subsidiary in Mexico for scanning and logging paper data.
“We scan the data, add meta data to it and then we go through that and look for opportunities,” said Ramnath who was a 2019 YWCA Sudbury Woman of Distinction Award winner. “Let’s say a prospector in 1962 was walking through the bush and he found visible gold. He would have put an ‘X’ on his map and wrote gold, then got an assay back saying 30 grams/tonne. That piece of paper would most likely have been folded up and put in a box. If we find that, we start investigating. We go through the data, find the anomalies and stake the claims or buy the project from someone else.”
Though the job consumes a lot of her time, Ramnath – whose favourite mineral is gold -- maintains a healthy work-life balance.
The mother of a two-and-a-half-year son enjoys travelling, watching Netflix series, curling and playing softball.
“I put off making a child until I was almost 41 to become a scientist and entrepreneur and build a business,” she noted. “With all that’s in my life, child birth has given me the ability to filter what is important and not. It allows me to make smarter decisions with my time and money. Having another human being that I have to care for has really rounded off my life in a nice way.”
Gratitude is the key attitude to success which Ramnath fully acknowledges.
She appreciates her parents who ensured their children are educated. Her brothers Troy and Sydney are an aerospace engineer and geologist respectively while their sister – Jenelle – is an Environmental Co-ordinator with Defence Construction Canada.
The family patriarch completed Physics and Teaching degrees at the University of Manitoba and taught in Arborg – a small town about 103 kilometres north of Winnipeg -- for four decades before retiring. Still active, he’s a Physics and Calculus tutor.
His father, James Ramnath, was a Presbyterian school principal, church elder, newspaper columnist and gas station owner who used the money from the sale to Texaco of his business on a main artery to send four of his five sons to university.
Ramnath’s paternal grandfather was excited when he learnt she was pursuing an MBA. He was also elated that she was going to pay him a visit in early 2009.
“My Aja (paternal grandfather) was 98 at the time living alone (his wife died in 1996) and active,” she said. “On the day of my departure while I was at the airport, I got the sad news that he didn’t wake up that morning. In his last letter to me which is in my doorway, he talked about how delighted he was of me going for higher education.”
Shastri Ramnath will be presented with a UWI Toronto Vice-Chancellor Award
When Ramnath receives her University of the West Indies Toronto Benefit Gala Vice-Chancellor Award on April 4, her grandfather will be very much in her thoughts.
“I am proud to be getting this award because I know it’s something he would have been proud of,” she said.
Cognizant she’s standing on the shoulders of others, Ramnath is also grateful for the guidance and mentorship she has received along her journey to success.
“I have a philosophy on mentorship in that I believe that people must have multiple mentors in different aspects of their lives and those have to be individuals that are judgment free that you can approach at any time,” she said. “My mom (Martha Ramnath is a health care practitioner) and my sister mentor me on how to be a mother, my business partner Ashley Kirwan – who is 10 years younger than me -- mentors me on how to interact with people and how to treat people , Wayne Rodney, who became like my dad in Sudbury and was the Claims Manager taught me about agreements and how to work within the mining industry with respect to property ownership, Gord Morrison in a mine finder who shaped exactly how we built Orix and my pseudo husband Scott McLean has been the best mentor when it comes to setting up the business and helping me make connections.”
Last June, Ramnath was appointed to chair a new committee set up by the Manitoba government to provide advice on priority issues related to mining and mineral exploration in the province and help advance Manitoba’s ‘Economic Growth Action Plan’ goals.
