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Former Tottenham resident’s career takes her to the heart of Southern Africa

July 18, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

A former Tottenham resident’s career choice has taken her to some very interesting and unusual locations.

Beatrice Cigagna, who grew up in Tottenham, is a Mine Engineer, currently working on a diamond mine project in Southern Africa – more specifically Letlhakane, Botswana.

While attending engineering school at Queen’s University in Kingston, Beatrice decided to study mining while in her second year.

“You specialize in second year so I chose mining / mechanical engineering. That’s my specialty,” Beatrice explained. “There’s only a few schools in Canada that offer mining programs. I thought it sounded interesting, I stumbled into it.”

After graduating, Beatrice spent a year in Toronto doing market research for the mining industry. She decided that a move to the field would provide new opportunities and a more exciting work environment.

“I decided I wanted to get some more hands-on experience,” Beatrice explained. “Mining is very particular. It’s really hard to understand it unless you’ve really seen it. I thought I really need to go see this to really understand it.”

Beatrice moved to British Columbia and began working on a copper mining project near Kamloops. She works hands-on in her projects.

The mine in Kaploops was 1.4 km deep.

“It took us a 45 minute drive to get to the bottom,” Beatrice explained. “My area of expertise is underground. The last two projects I’ve worked on have been open pit mines. As the resource goes deeper, it’s not economical to keep mining it from the surface so you have to drive underneath the pit using tunnelling. The two projects I’ve worked on has been the engineering design for underground expansion projects.”  

Through contacts in B.C., Beatrice became aware of the diamond mine project in Botswana. When offered the job in Botswana, at first she really wasn’t interested. However, after giving it some thought, she decided it would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“This diamond mine project in Botswana is very similar in scope to what I had just worked on,” Beatrice said. “It was also an open pit going underground, it was a similar mining method to what I had done in Kamploops. We had to put in an underground crusher, we had to put in conveyors – all the development that is needed.”

Beatrice works for the company that does the engineering design and management of the project. They hire specialized contractors to do specific jobs.  

The move to Botswana provided some culture shock, but once she settled in, Beatrice became accustomed to the local way of doing things. She appreciates the way the mining industry works in Botswana, saying it has good safety standards and technology.

The mine and town is located in the Kalahari Desert.

“The area is known for diamonds and safaris,” Beatrice explained. “There’s lots of tourism, but when I’m there I’m mostly working. We do regular social stuff. There’s a handful of restaurants which are pretty awesome. The town is very much built up around the mine. The town has grown so much even in the time I’ve spent there.”

It took a while for people to accept her in the local industry, but once they did, it worked out fine.

“It was a huge cultural adjustment,” Beatrice said of getting used to the way things work there. “When you’re working in Africa, they’re not used to working with women. When they look at someone like me,

they think, ‘You’re not my mother, you’re not my sister, you’re not a caregiver or services provider,’ so they weren’t sure what to do with me. “When I first went to the site, I was very much avoided. People didn’t know how to interact. You have to go there and show people what you do.”

Once they realized Beatrice was a working, knowledgeable and qualified engineer, things relaxed, and they got down to business.

The project in Botswana is about at the halfway mark of completion, and Beatrice plans to stay until it is finished.

From there, she can look for a new project and see what exciting adventure lies ahead. 

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