Gina Rinehart has made history, becoming the first woman to win the GJ Stokes Memorial Award at Kalgoorlie’s Diggers & Dealers mining forum.
Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart has made history, becoming the first woman to win the GJ Stokes Memorial Award at Kalgoorlie’s Diggers & Dealers mining forum.
Named after forum founder, the late Geoffrey Stokes, the award is given to someone who has made an exceptional lifetime contribution to the Australian mining industry.
The Hancock Prospecting owner is as major player in Western Australia's resources sector, having been a top tip for the award for years before her crowning at tonight’s gala dinner at the Goldfields Arts Centre.
Now boasting an estimated $21.2 billion fortune, Mrs Rinehart was born in Perth but spent a considerable amount of time as a young woman at her parents’ sheep and cattle stations in the Pilbara. She took over the chair at her father Lang Hancock’s company in 1992 following his death, subsequently forming a plan to turn the financially struggling exploration vehicle around.
Mrs Rinehart organised a state agreement to secure the Hope Downs tenements in the Pilbara, forming a joint venture with mining giant Rio Tinto in 2005 that took the project into production within two years.
Mrs Rinehart is now the primary owner of the privately owned Roy Hill mine, a 55 million tonnes per annum operation in the Pilbara that employs more than 2,000 people.
The company has mined one billion tonnes since first production in 2015, chief executive Barry Fitzgerald said at Diggers & Dealers. He also confirmed Roy Hill had cleared its $US8 billion ($11.2 billion) debt.
Ms Rinehart's Stokes Award win was the only bright spot for the iron ore sector in a year dominated by the excitement generated by record gold prices and booming Australian gold production.
There were few prizes for guessing the dealer of the year award, with Raleigh Finlayson’s Saracen Mineral Holdings and Bill Beament’s Northern Star Resources sharing the prize for their purchase of Kalgoorlie’s Super Pit gold mine.
Having brought the mine back to Australian hands for the first time in almost 20 years, the joint venture owners have been the talk of the conference since inking a $16 billion mega-merger last week that will place the Golden Mile into one company’s hands for the first time in its 127-year history.
ASX-listed mid-tier producer Ramelius Resources was named the Digger of the Year after delivering a 420 per cent increase in net profit across its Edna May, Mt Magnet and Vivien gold mines in Western Australia.
Ramelius beat the top end of its guidance by 24 per cent in the June quarter en route to record financial year production of more than 230,000 ounces of gold.
Pilbara gold explorer De Grey Mining won the best emerging company award. Its shares have soared from 5 cents to $1.34 this year on the back of its Hemi discovery in the Pilbara, catapulting its market capitalisation to $1.7 billion.
Globetrotting trade media editor Dominic Piper broke commercial media’s recent hold on the media award, with the Australia’s Paydirt and Gold Mining Journal editor from the Paydirt Media stable securing the prize.
Mr Piper was honoured for his 15 years at the Perth-based imprint. During this time, he has travelled throughout Australia, Asia and Africa covering mining and exploration projects across the world.
WA School of Mines mining engineering student Georgia Kerr won the Ray Finlayson Award for Leadership and Academic Excellence.
