Mafalda Arias was born, raised and educated in Lima, Peru. She has over nineteen years' experience working in private and public companies in the mineral exploration and mining industries in Canada and South America.

Receiving an education in various countries and being able to communicate in three languages, coupled with her experience as an immigrant to Canada, has provoked her curiosity and assisted her in understanding and dealing successfully with cross-cultural situations. Ms. Arias is passionate about mining and intercultural matters.

She is currently a graduate student working on a Master's Degree in Intercultural Relations at the University of the Pacific, California. She possesses a university degree in Business Administration from the Universidad de Lima, Peru and a post graduate certificate in International Commerce from ESAN, Peru. In addition to English, she is fluent in Spanish and also speaks French.

Ms. Arias is a certified administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), a statistically reliable, cross-culturally valid measure of intercultural competence for meeting business goals. She is also a certified facilitator of Cultural Detective methodology, a process for building bridges across cultures and organizations.

She was the co-chair of the organizing committee for the Women in Mining Forum in May 2010 and is a committee member for the Minerva Foundation for Women, sponsor of the Women in Resource Award to take place in December 2010. She is a member of Women in Mining (Vancouver Chapter) and is the Vice President of SIETAR BC.