PDAC announces 2015 award recipients

The Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) has named the six winners of it annual awards. The recipients will be feted during the annual PDAC convention at an evening gala on March 2, 2015, in Toronto.

The awards showcase the achievements of exceptional companies, individuals and groups in the mineral exploration and mining industry. Recipients are selected by the PDAC’s board of directors based on the recommendations of the association’s awards committee.

David Palmer, president and CEO of Probe Mines, is the recipient of this year’s Bill Dennis Award for a Canadian mineral discovery or prospecting success. Palmer is being recognized for the Borden gold project, a discovery located near Chapleau, Ont. Borden is an exciting and important gold discovery that continues to evolve, grow and improve with continued exploration. Located in a previously unexplored area of Ontario, the discovery could be the beginning of a new gold district in Canada. The company’s June 2014 technical report estimated a high-grade gold resources with potential for underground extraction at Borden totalling 1.60 million oz. gold in the indicated category (9.3 million tonnes grading 5.39 grams of gold per tonne), and 0.43 million oz. gold in the inferred category (3 million tonnes grading 4.37 grams of gold) at a 2.5-gram-per-tonne gold cut-off. The deposit remains open for expansion.

Matt Manson, president and CEO of Stornoway Diamonds, is the winner of this year’s Viola R. MacMillan Award for company or mine development. He is getting the award for leading Stornoway’s team in developing the company’s Renard diamond project in Quebec’s James Bay region. The team completed its $946-million project financing package this past July, more than 13 years after the deposit’s initial discovery. The mine is now under construction, with production scheduled to begin in the second half of 2016. Matt took the Renard project through its various phases of development and has raised enough financing to build the mine, despite difficult markets. During this period, Matt also built strong relationships with the Quebec government and the Cree Nation, as well as with the local communities of Chibougamau and Chapais by making them active partners with Stornoway.

Ivanhoe Mines’ Kamoa Discovery Team is the recipient of this year’s Thayer Lindsley Award for international mineral discoveries. The team is receiving the award for discovering the Kamoa copper deposit in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The deposit is located in the Central African copper belt on the western edge of the Katangan basin, 25 km west of the Kolwezi district. The deposit is a new and blind grassroots discovery in an area previously written off by other explorers because of its lack of Mines Series rocks, as well as of surface mineralization. A 2013 independent mineral resource estimate ranked Kamoa as Africa’s largest high-grade copper discovery and the world’s largest, undeveloped high-grade copper discovery. The Kamoa Discovery Team was led by David Broughton, executive vice-president of exploration at Ivanhoe, and Thomas Rogers, director of exploration with African Mining Consultants (AMC). The team also included David Edwards, geology manager for Kamoa; Douglas Haynes, director of Douglas Haynes Discovery; Ross McGowan, formerly of AMC and currently CEO of Armada Exploration; and Steven McMullan, site manager at Ivanhoe’s Kipushi project and principal geoscientist with AMC.

Bill Pearson is taking home this year’s Distinguished Service Award for his outstanding contribution and dedication to Canada’s mineral and exploration industry throughout his 40-plus year career. He convened the first meeting of the Committee for the Professional Registration of Geoscientists of Ontario in March 1989, which he chaired for seven years. He was president of the Association of Geoscientists of Ontario (AGO) from 1996 to 2000, and was the founding president of the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario (APGO) from 2000 to 2003. In addition to his work for the geoscience profession in Ontario, Pearson was instrumental in forming the Canadian Council of Professional Geoscientists (CCPG now Geoscientists Canada), where he served as one of CCPG’s founding directors. 

Noront Resources will be given this year’s Environmental and Social Responsibility Award. The company is being acknowledged for its accomplishments and commitment to social initiatives in Northern Ontario. Over the years, Noront has expanded its community engagement program to include education, skills training, youth programming and economic development in the area. The company has built a partnership with Matawa’s Kiikenomaga Kikenjigewen Employment and Training Services (KKETS) and Confederation College in Thunder Bay to create the Ring of Fire Aboriginal Training Alliance (ROFATA).  Noront also supports programs aimed at overcoming barriers to higher education among aboriginal communities, including Mining Matters, an organization that educates students about Canada’s geology and mineral resources, and DAREarts, a movie-making youth camp that helps students better understand mining, and a donations and sponsorship program.

Sam Bosum is the winner of this year’s Skookum Jim Award for aboriginal achievement in the mineral industry. Sam is receiving the award for his work bridging the gap between the Oujé-Bougoumou Cree Nation and the mineral industry, as well as his continued efforts to encourage and mentor Cree youth to pursue their future careers, including careers in geology. Sam has been working with mining and exploration companies in the Chibougamau region of Quebec for nearly 50 years. He is the president of Native Exploration Services, an aboriginal-owned company that offers employment and business opportunities in the region and is considered a major employer in the Oujé-Bougoumou Cree Nation. Sam has been a member of the Band Council of the Oujé-Bougoumou Cree Nation for the past 38 years. During this time he has served as Deputy Chief and was elected as Chief in 2001, a position he held for eight years.