The eighth Mining Journal ‘Outstanding Achievement’ Awards were celebrated last week.
Attendance at this year’s awards dinner exceeded 850 despite the unseasonably cold weather in London. The ceremony, at the Honourable Artillery Club’s Winter Garden, was hosted by comedian Dominic Holland. As the chairman of judges,
Mining Journal editorial director Chris Hinde said the companies and individuals were nominated for the various award categories in October by Mining Journal readers. These entries were shortlisted, and then subjected to three
weeks of online voting in which over 400 companies took part.
Presenter: Head of Standard Bank’s African mining and metals coverage, Gerard Kisbey-Green Last year’s winner was Vedanta’s Anil Agarwal, with previous winners being Don Newport, Chris Jennings, Peter Munk, Gary Ralfe, Sir Sam
Jonah and Sir Robert Wilson.
The adjudicators note that the previous winners of this award have all been from the corporate or financial side of the international mining industry. The award this year marks a change.
In reading the citation, Mr Kisbey-Green said: ”The Lifetime Achievement award for 2010 goes to someone justly famous for his engineering skills. “This year’s winner achieved a civil engineering degree from Witwatersrand University
in South Africa in 1961, and an MSc two years later.
He subsequently spent six years on the Nchanga copper mine in Zambia, first as a section engineer responsible for open-pit slope design, and then as a production shift boss, mine captain and eventually open-pit mine manager.
In 1969, this year’s winner became a senior lecturer in soil mechanics and foundation engineering at the University of Witwatersrand. This led to a PhD.
While a lecturer, he accepted various consulting roles on open-pit mine planning. This led in 1974 to the establishment of a Johannesburg-based consultancy with two colleagues; Messrs Robertson and Kirsten. The firm has since grown
to become the largest mining-focussed consultancy in the world, with 1,000 staff in 43 offices in 19 countries.”
This year’s Outstanding Achievement award goes to the ‘S’ in SRK Consulting: Dr Oskar Steffen.
(text kindly supplied by www.Mining-Journal.com)
