An award for special achievement is being given this year to Laurence Golborne, Mining Minister of Chile, for his management of the rescue operation that saved 33 miners who had been trapped underground for 69 days in the San José copper-gold mine.
An estimated one billion people around the world were riveted to screens on October 12, 2010, as, one by one, the miners were winched to the surface in a 21-inch wide bullet shaped capsule called Phoenix, following a rescue effort that had taken 51 days and is believed to be the deepest ever.
This award, honouring the memory of one of Canada’s greatest mine finders, recognizes an individual or a team of explorationists credited with a recent significant mineral discovery anywhere in the world.
An exploration team of Anglo American has been chosen to receive the 2011 Thayer Lindsley Award. The team is being recognized for its discovery of Los Sulfatos copper deposit in Chile, a world-class discovery with an inferred resource of 1,200 Mt @ 1.46% copper and 0.02% molybdenum and a potential resource of 4,000-5,000 Mt @ 0.8-1.0% copper.
The five team members include Graham Brown, group head of geosciences and exploration; Vicente Irarrazaval, regional head of exploration; Juan Carlos Toro, regional copper geologist; Graeme Lyall, senior resource geologist; and William Robles, senior geologist.
This award is named in honour of the PDAC’s longest serving president and is given to a person or company demonstrating leadership in management and financing for the exploration and development of mineral resources.
Winner of this year’s Viola R. MacMillan Award is Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited, a company that has developed into a world-class, multi-mine gold producer. An ambitious four-year mine-building program from 2006 on has transformed the company, creating exceptional value for shareholders, employees and host communities. Today Agnico-Eagle, which has been in operation for 53 years, has six operating gold mines in Canada, Finland and Mexico. Its gold reserves have increased significantly, and the company ranks among the top ten gold producers in the world, based on market capitalization.
Recipients of this award will have demonstrated exceptional achievement and/or service in an aboriginal-run service business for the Canadian mining industry or a Canadian aboriginal exploration or mining company, or have made a significant individual contribution to the mining industry.
Phillip (Jerry) Asp is this year’s winner of the Skookum Jim Award. Asp is being recognized for promoting mining’s benefits to aboriginal communities in British Columbia. A former Chief of the Tahltan Band Council, Asp established the Tahltan Nation Development Corporation to provide construction and maintenance services to northern BC mines. The company became the largest aboriginal-owned and operated heavy construction company in western Canada.
Jerry negotiated two mining impact and benefits agreements, the first for the Golden Bear mine that set the template for later Tahltan projects, and the second for the Eskay Creek mine. Jerry is a founding member of the National Indian Businessman’s Association and the Canadian Aboriginal Minerals Association, of which he serves as vice president. He was a major contributor to the award-winning Mining Information Toolkit for Aboriginal Communities.
This award recognizes an individual who has achieved one or more of the following: made a substantial contribution to mineral exploration and mining development over a number of years; given considerable time and effort to the PDAC; made outstanding contributions to the mineral industry in the field of finance, geology, geophysics, geochemistry research, or a related activity.
Patricia Dillon is this year’s recipient of the PDAC’s Distinguished Service Award. Mrs. Dillon is being honoured for her many and exemplary contributions to the PDAC and to the Canadian mineral industry, especially to its education and human resources initiatives. Patricia served as a PDAC director for 15 years and as the association’s president from 2006 to 2008. She is also a past president of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum and is the only person to have been president of both associations.
Patricia has charted the course for PDAC Mining Matters, a highly successful educational program. She is a director of the Mining Industry Human Resources Council, past-president of the Minerals and Economics Management Society, a director of the Ontario Mining Association, and past-chair of the Minerals and Metals Industry Sector Study Steering Committee, which oversaw research on human resource needs in Canada’s mineral industry.
This award honours an individual or organization demonstrating outstanding initiative, leadership and accomplishment in protecting and preserving the natural environment and/or in establishing good community relations during an exploration program or operation of a mine.
The PDAC has selected IAMGOLD Corporation to receive the Environmental & Social Responsibility Award for the company’s commitment to excellence in environmental stewardship, community engagement, and health and safety, particularly during exploration. IAMGOLD has operating mines and exploration projects in West Africa, South America and Québec.
The company’s frameworks for health and safety management and sustainability are informed by international standards and good practices (including the PDAC’s e3 Plus) and are used to create performance criteria and measurable results for all of its operations. The company was the top extractive company and third overall in the 2010 Globe and Mail’s ranking of environmental and social and governance performance of Canada’s largest companies in the S&P/TSX 60 Index.
This award, named for a former president of the association, honours individuals who have accomplished one or both of the following: made a significant mineral discovery; made an important contribution to the prospecting and/or exploration industry. The award may also be used to recognize an important mineral discovery in Canada.
Prospector Shawn Ryan wins this year’s Bill Dennis Award for his gold discoveries in Yukon. Ryan worked for close to 15 years to locate the source of the alluvial gold found in the Klondike gold fields. In 2004 he identified the anomaly that led Underworld Resources to its White Gold deposit and a subsequent $138-million takeover by Kinross. Ryan’s efforts and eventual success have had a positive impact on exploration in the Yukon, with a six-fold increase in exploration spending from $30 million at the beginning of this decade to an estimated $183 million in 2010.
Ryan worked for close to 15 years to locate the source of the alluvial gold that sparked the Klondike gold rush more than a century ago. In 2004 he identified the anomaly that led Underworld Resources to its White Gold deposit and a subsequent $138-million takeover by Kinross Gold Corporation. Ryan’s efforts and prospecting success have had a substantial impact on exploration in Yukon, stimulating renewed exploration interest and activity in the territory.
TORONTO (December 9, 2010) – Prospector Shawn Ryan will receive the Bill Dennis Award for prospecting success, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) announced today. Ryan is one of six awards winners to be honoured at an awards evening on Monday, March 7, 2011, in Toronto during the association’s annual international convention (March 6-9).
Ryan worked for close to 15 years to locate the source of the alluvial gold that sparked the Klondike gold rush more than a century ago. In 2004 he identified the anomaly that led Underworld Resources to its White Gold deposit and a subsequent $138-million takeover by Kinross Gold Corporation. Ryan’s efforts and prospecting success have had a substantial impact on exploration in Yukon, stimulating renewed exploration interest and activity in the territory.
One of the discoverers of gold in the Klondike was Skookum Jim Mason. An award commemorating him is presented by the PDAC for aboriginal achievement in the mineral industry. The winner of the 2011 Skookum Jim Award is Jerry Asp who is being recognized for promoting mining’s benefits to aboriginal communities in British Columbia. Asp established the Tahltan Nation Development Corporation to provide construction and maintenance services to northern BC mines and was responsible for negotiating two mining impact and benefits agreements in the province. Read the rest of this entry »
(L to R) Joe Hinzer; Perry Durning; Frank (Bud) Hillemeyer
The PDAC Thayer Lindsley International Mineral Discoveries Award recognizes an individual or a team of explorationists credited with a recent significant mineral discovery anywhere in the world. It reflects the global nature of mining and the fact that Canadians are making enormous contribution to this sector. This award is in memory of Thayer Lindsley, one of the greatest mine finders in all time.
Perry Durning and Frank (Bud) Hillemeyer are recognized for their outstanding record of grassroots discoveries in Mexico, particularly the San Sebastian silver-gold mine, the San Agustin gold deposit, the Pitarrilla silver deposit, and the Camino Rojo gold discovery.
Durning and Hillemeyer formed La Cuesta International in 1993 after roughly a decade together at Fischer-Watt Gold, an Arizona and Nevada-based mineral exploration firm.
La Cuesta’s first major discovery was the San Sebastian mine in Durango State, Mexico.
(L to R) Patricia Dillon PDAC Immediate Past President; Ross J. Beaty
The PDAC Viola R. MacMillan is named after the PDAC’s longest serving president. It honours a person who has demonstrated leadership in management and financing for the exploration and development of mineral resources.
Ross J. Beaty is honoured for successfully founding and operating nine resource companies, including Equinox Resources, Pan American Silver Corp., Northern Peru Copper Corp., Global Copper Corp., and Magma Energy Corp.
Beaty, who is foremost a geologist, says his ilk may be the only profession “paid to fail.” Of course, there are exceptions.
Since 1994, Beaty has raised more that $1 billion in capital and created shareholder wealth in excess of $4 billion.
Beaty, with a master’s degree in geology and a law degree, launched an empire in 1980 with the eponymous Beaty Geological, a contract geological services company that was later bought for shares in Beaty’s first public company, Equinox Resources. Equinox’s initial public offering, in 1985, netted $110,000.
(L to R) Nicholas C. Carter; Tony Andrews PDAC Executive Director
The PDAC Distinguished Services Award recognizes an individual for one or more of the following: substantial contribution to the mineral exploration and mining development; considerable time and effort expended on behalf of the PDAC; outstanding contributions to the industry in finance, geology, geophysics, geochemistry research, or a related activity.
Nicholas C. Carter is being recognized for fostering mineral exploration and mining in Canada through his active role in a number of associations and professional societies.
Carter was born and raised in Little Long Lac, Ontario, not more than 200 yards from the headframe of the Little Long Lac gold mine. Carter’s father, a well known, meticulous mining engineer, who later managed the Little Long Lac mine, provided his son with a template for achievement.
Carter graduated from the University of New Brunswick in 1960 as a geologist and proceeded immediately to Michigan Technological University where he studied the iron formations of part of the Marquette Range as part of a master’s degree in geology.
(L to R) Chief Glenn Nolan, 2nd VP PDAC; Willie S. Keatainak
The PDAC Skookum Jim Award is named after Skookum Jim, the Aboriginal leader of the group that discovered the Yukon Klondike goldfields, one of Canada’s most important mineral discoveries. Recipients of this award will have demonstrated exceptional achievement and/or service in a Canadian Aboriginal-run service business for the Canadian mining industry or a Canadian aboriginal exploration or mining company or made a significant individual contribution to the mineral industry either technically, through a business venture, or through a mineral discovery.
Willie S. Keatainak is recognized for his key role in negotiating the Raglan Agreement, encouraging others to take advantage of the opportunities that the Raglan mine offers, and his longstanding involvement in Nuvumiut Developments, an Inuit community-based company serving the mining industry.
Keatainak is on a mission to better the lives of his people, the Inuit living in communities in far northern Quebec, especially those in his home village of Salluit, situated on the northern tip of the Ungava Peninsula.
In the early 1990s, as the mayor of Salluit, Keatainak acted as the chief negotiator on a team seeking long-term economic stability for Inuit communities through the development of Falconbridge Ltd.’s Raglan nickel depostis, emplaced in the nearby Cape Smith-Wakeham Bay ultramafic belt.
(L to R) Scott Jobin-Bevans, 1st VP PDAC; Chantal LaVoie, COO De Beers Canada
The PDAC Environmental and Social Responsibility Award recognizes an individual or organization demonstrating outstanding initiative, leadership and accomplishment in protecting and preserving the natural environment or in developing good community relations during an exploration program or operation of a mine.
De Beers Canada is recognized for establishing good community relations and ensuring environmental protection at its two diamond mines in Canada.
The company operates Snap Lake in the Northwest Territories and Victor in northern Ontario with about 850 full-time employees, and another 50 part-time and seasonal workers.
About 40% of Victor and one-quarter of Snap Lake employees are aboriginal.
Aboriginal communities are represented by four separate Impact Benefit Agreements at Snap Lake; three Impact Benefit Agreements and a Working Relationship Agreement are in place with the communities surrounding Victor.
As many of you are aware, since I joined the PDAC Board in 2004, I have been actively advocating for greater participation by aboriginal peoples in our industry and greater co-operation between companies and communities. Thor Lake has provided an opportunity to practice what I have been preaching and for Avalon to actively implement some of the community engagement principles of E3 Plus that PDAC has been encouraging all of its members to adopt.
In this regard, I have been very fortunate to have Bill Mercer, another vocal advocate for better CSR practice in our industry, as a committed and inspirational partner.
Perhaps the two most successful and innovative initiatives were the driller helper training program which is a largely a tribute to Bill’s prodigious energy and enthusiasm and the Naming Ceremony an ambitious undertaking organized by our equally energetic community advisor in Yellowknife, David Connelly.
(L to R) Jon Baird, PDAC President; Bill Mercer, Avalon VP-Exploration; Don Bubar, Avalon President and CEO
The PDAC Environmental and Social Responsibility Award recognizes an individual or organization demonstrating outstanding initiative, leadership and accomplishment in protecting and preserving the natural environment or in developing good community relations during an exploration program or operation of a mine.
Avalon Rare Metals Inc. is being recognized for its responsible exploration practices with respect to community engagement and its encouragement of skills training and employment for aboriginal people.
Before applying for a land-use permit from the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board or setting foot on its new Thor Lake property in the Northwest Territories, Avalon President and CEO Don Bubar introduced himself with letters written to four Dene leader in communities around Thor Lake.
After several attempts at convening a meeting, Bubar was able to sit down with Dene leaders at a neutral location.
They were surprised that Avalon had not applied for a land-use permit before requesting a meeting. Other companies either had received or applied for land-use permits and then sought permission to enter Dene land.
