Editorial: Young Mining Professional Award to honour mining’s best under 40

At The Northern Miner, we’ve taken good care to honour the old lions and lionesses of the Canadian mining industry with our co-founding and ongoing sponsorship of the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame and its annual induction ceremony — which has grown to become one of the industry’s must-attend events each January — as well as our support of the two mining halls of fame in the United States. Now it’s time to also acknowledge the industry’s younger members, with our full support of the inaugural annual “Young Mining Professional” award, which will shine a light on the best and brightest of the under-40 crowd in Canada and the United States.

We are partnering with the Young Mining Professionals (YMP) group — with its lively and growing chapters in Vancouver and Toronto (there is a similar unaffiliated-for-now group in Montreal named Les Jeunes Professionnels Mines & Énergie) — to launch the YMP Awards, which in the words of the YMP, will “recognize two young mining professionals, a male and a female, who over the past year, and during the course of their careers, have demonstrated exceptional leadership skills and innovative thinking to provide value for their companies and shareholders, as well as for themselves.”

The awards are named after two iconic entrepreneurs in the mining industry: Barrick Gold founder Peter Munk, and mining executive Eira Thomas, who first gained prominence for her role in growing the diamond miner Aber Resources. Nominations for the Peter Munk Award (male) and the Eira Thomas Award (female) are open to the public until Jan. 15, 2017.

A selection committee comprised of YMP directors and Northern Miner executives will judge the nominees and announce the winners in February 2017, with their profiles published in The Northern Miner.

The YMP Awards Gala will be held on March 4, 2017, at the Shangri-La Hotel in Toronto, the day before the start of the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention.

But the YMP and The Northern Miner need your help in identifying the best young leaders in mining in Canada and the U.S., and encourage nominations to be submitted online at www.youngminingprofessionals.com/ympawards.html

The basic criteria are that nominees: must be under the age of 40 during 2016; currently engaged in the mining and metals industry; and domiciled in Canada or the United States.

Along with your nomination, please include a brief description of why you think this individual deserves either the award.
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The YMP gives special thanks to the YMP Awards’ founding sponsors: Barrick Gold, KPMG, Cassels Brock and the PDAC.