The PDAC’s awards honour achievement, excellence

Every year, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada honours the men and women who have made outstanding contributions of the industry and to the association. Their efforts may have been in the field, committee room or the classroom. It is the association’s way, on behalf of the industry, of saying thank you, of recognizing their contributions and of recognizing excellence.

The PDAC instituted its first award during the presidency of Edward G. Thompson (1977-78). “Canada was built to a large extent on mining, and Canadians owe much to our prospectors and mine finders for their standard of living. It is important that we acknowledge the special contributions and achievements of those people who have helped shape our industry or who have contributed to the success of the association,” he said at the time.

The first award to be established was the Bill Dennis Prospector of the Year Award in 1978. Others have been added over the years, including the Viola R. MacMillan Developer’s Award; the Distinguished Service Award; the e3 (Environmental Excellence in Exploration) Award; the Special Achievement Award; and, more recently, the Thayer Lindsley International Discovery Award.

This year, the 75th anniversary of the founding of the PDAC, the association will be presenting seven awards.

In announcing the awards winners, PDAC President Patricia Dillon noted that this year’s recipients represent the principal constituent parts of the mineral industry — prospectors, junior exploration companies, producing companies, and governments that support the industry. “My association is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year,” she said. “On this landmark occasion, I am thrilled that we are recognizing people from the different segments of our industry. They have excelled in their respective fields of endeavour and have contributed to Canada’s greatness as a mining nation and as a leader in global mineral exploration.”

BILL DENNIS PROSPECTOR OF THE YEAR AWARD

This award honours individuals who have made an important contribution to the prospecting and exploration industry in Canada.

Four generations of the Keats-Stares prospecting family in Newfoundland will be presented with this award. Ted and Allan Keats will receive the award on behalf of the family. Ted, the father, was involved in the discovery of the Point Leamington, Burnt Pond and Tally Pond base metal discoveries. Sons Al, Calvin, Fred, and Suley followed in their father’s footsteps. Al worked with his father on the Point Leamington and Tally Pond deposits and also discovered Duck Pond and Winter Hill. Calvin has worked all over the world, discovering South Golden Promise and numerous uranium showings in Labrador. Fred discovered a 36-ounce/ton visible-gold boulder on the Appleton Linear for Noranda (now optioned to Paragon). Suley discovered the Beaver Brook base metal deposit with Calvin and has been looking for uranium in Labrador. The following generations — grandsons and great grandsons — are all actively involved in prospecting.

THAYER LINDSLEY INTERNATIONAL DISCOVERY AWARD

This award recognizes an individual or a team of explorationists credited with a recent significant mineral discovery anywhere in the world.

The winner of this award is Northern Dynasty Minerals for its discovery of the Pebble East porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum deposit in southwestern Alaska. Current resource numbers stand at 1.83 billion tonnes grading 1.05% copper Eq. and containing 24.3 billion pounds of copper, 22.1 million ounces of gold and 1.5 billion pounds of molybdenum.

VIOLA R. MACMILLAN DEVELOPER’S AWARD

This award is named in honour of the PDAC’s longest serving president and is given to a person who has demonstrated leadership in management and financing for the exploration and development of mineral resources.

James Gill, president and CEO of Aur Resources Inc., is this year’s winner of the Viola R. MacMillan Developer’s Award. Since its incorporation in 1981, Aur Resources, under Gill’s leadership, has discovered six mineral deposits, built and operated four mines, and bought and operated three other mines. Most of these operations have been in Canada. Later this year (2007) the company will be bringing Canada’s most recent base metal mine (Duck Pond in Newfoundland) into production. During this quarter century, Aur’s financial strength has grown from a market capitalization of $250,000 to over $2 billion.

Aur is one of only a handful of companies to have successfully made the transition from exploration to mining and remains one of the only Canadian base metal companies to have grown substantially, maintained its independence, and managed to remain profitable throughout the peaks and troughs of metal prices.

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD

This award recognizes individuals who have contributed significantly to mineral exploration and mining development over a number of years or who have made outstanding contributions to the industry in fields such as geology, geophysics, and geochemical research.

In this, its 75th anniversary, the association has elected to recognize and celebrate the myriad contributions to the mineral industry of Canada’s government geoscientists. Public geoscience and this country’s geoscience knowledge base play key roles in the search for and discovery of mineral deposits and are one of this nation’s key competitive advantages. Good geological maps are the foundation for mineral exploration projects and one of the most important tools used in the search for mineral resources. The co-chairmen of the National Geological Surveys Committee, representing the federal and provincial/territorial geological surveys, will be accepting the award on behalf of the government geoscientists across the country at the awards evening on Monday, March 5. On the following evening at the president’s reception, each geological survey will be recognized in turn, with the heads of each accepting a plaque in recognition of this award.

E3 ENVIRONMENTAL EXCELLENCE IN EXPLORATION AWARD

This award honours companies that have demonstrated outstanding initiative, leadership and accomplishment in protecting and preserving the natural environment. The award also recognizes companies that have excelled in forming good community relations during an exploration program or operation of a mine.

The PDAC will be recognizing Gabriel Resources for the initiatives that the company is taking to bring its Rosia Montana project into production. Rosia Montana is a small village in the forested mountains of western Romania and the site of gold deposits believed to be the largest in all of Europe. The area has been mined for at least two millennia, from the time of Caesar to the days of Ceaucescu, and owes its name, “red mountain,” to stream waters turned red from toxic runoff produced by 2,000 years of gold mining. Gabriel is carefully and wisely working with the local community to ensure its members’ full support for the project which is based on four principles: community; culture; economy; and environment. The company’s commitment is to build a new, state-of-the-art mining operation that will revitalize the local economy, preserve and respect the significant cultural heritage of the area, clean up the vestiges of the former mining operations, and behave in a socially responsible manner.

Another e3 award will be presented to Polaris Minerals for establishing excellent community relations and environmental practices during the exploration and subsequent construction of its Orca Quarry near Port McNeill on Vancouver Island. The company set up partnerships with First Nations communities that have enabled bands to have an equity stake in the operation, and two of the largest quarries of their kind in Canada have been successfully permitted with the support and co-operation of the local community. Polaris has also exceeded expectations in its attention to the protection of the en
vironment. For example, the processing plant at the Orca Quarry will feature a closed circuit water recycling system to ensure that no process water will be discharged into the environment. The system includes a filtering process that eliminates the use of settling ponds, minimizes silt handling and clean-up costs and allows for the silt to be used to beneficiate the soils during reclamation.

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

This is an occasional award presented by the PDAC.

Tom Schroeter, senior regional geologist in British Columbia, will be receiving a special achievement award. Tom has been a longtime advocate for the industry and has contributed to publications on the geology of B.C., with particular emphasis on mineral deposits. He has gone beyond simple mapping and knowing his geology to promoting the importance and contributions of the industry to his political masters, whoever they may be. He has been a true and valuable friend to industry.