Reimagining the Mining Industry with SGS Philippines Minerals in Talk Shop Asia

“With the new protocols in mining, the key is the implementation before, during and end of the mine life. The companies have to take ownership, be vigilant and work closely with the investors while keeping an open communication, it’s the community that is at stake. The way I see it, if there is such an active communication with the parties involved in the activity together with the government, it’s going to be a successful mining operation. There is ownership, accountability from all the stakeholders. There’s no other way, we have to take our part.” – Ms. Jocelyn Babaan, SGS Philippines Business Director for Minerals, Consumer Goods and Retail, Government and Institutions Services and Multi Laboratory.

Ms. Babaan has been with SGS for over 30 years now and she has managed the Minerals department for 6 years from 2005 to 2011, and this year 2020, she once again took the role of leading the aforementioned industry. She spearheaded the establishment of the first mining onsite laboratory of SGS in the Philippines. She is the foundation and has took a huge part in the growth of the SGS Philippines’ minerals department through her effective leadership.

As Ms. Babaan shared her journey in SGS, she has mentioned that the company was able to acquire the very first mining onsite laboratory in the country with two more additional laboratories situated in Masbate and one in Nueva Vizcaya.

As she first entered her position as the business director for SGS Minerals, back in 2005, Philippines has just opened its doors to mining. The availability of skills and talent that was needed to operate in the country was insufficient. She explained the challenges and the hurdles she faced while designing the SGS mining team to be the best it can be.

SGS being present in over 140 countries had the advantage of getting experts abroad to train the employees locally. Also, SGS had an immersion program where some select employees had the chance to be trained in large mining companies abroad for 2 years in several countries like Australia, Vietnam and Mongolia. With all these tactics imposed by SGS, it shows that quality and leadership are some of the key aspects of the company in delivering the services to its clients.

Ms. Babaan has also shared how SGS handled the pandemic situation and how it has successfully kept its business running. She emphasized how the business continuity plans have been carefully planned and alongside the designing and implementation of the safety protocols in place.

Even before the pandemic, SGS has been very transformative and geared towards sustainability in the sense that it was able to allow a huge percentage of its workforce to switch to telecommuting work arrangement. It has also implemented a specific contingency plan for its employees whose jobs require them to be on the field. The company has also shown its resiliency and the values of being innovative as it was able to launch new and strategic business solutions enabling the clients to resume their operations despite the threat of the global pandemic. SGS is also capable of performing remote audits and inspections with its modern tools, equipment and strategies.

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