The Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada announced its slate of 2018 award winners in mid-November. The awards, which will be presented at the PDAC 2018 convention on March 6, 2018, recognize “exceptional leaders in the mineral exploration and mining industry.” The PDAC Awards are now in their 40th year.

Vancouver-based NexGen Energy received the Bill Dennis Award for its discovery of the Arrow deposit in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin in 2014. Arrow is one of the largest undeveloped uranium deposits in the world.

Geologist and former mining analyst Ted Reeve was given the Distinguished Service Award for his “invaluable” contributions to the PDAC convention. He chaired several sessions from 2002 to 2005 and more recently organized, suggested topics for and served on the selection committee of multiple convention events.

Golden Star Resources received the Environmental and Social Responsibility Award for the work it has done in the communities near its two gold mines in Ghana’s Ashanti gold belt. Among the mid-tier miner’s initiatives have been turning former pits into lakes with fish and providing breast cancer screening to thousands of women in the region.

Related: When Teranga Gold earned PDAC’s Environmental and Social Responsibility Award for its work in Senegal in 2017, its CEO Richard Young became a two-time winner

Consultant Lana Eagle received the Skookum Jim Award for her work creating dialogue between Indigenous communities and the mining industry. Eagle, a member of the Whitecap Dakota Nation in Saskatchewan, volunteers on the board of the Association for Mineral Exploration and CIM’s council, and is a speaker, lecturer and role model for Indigenous youth.

The late Jean Descarreaux, who helped develop the Quebec mineral exploration sector, received the Special Achievement Award. Descarreaux co-founded the Quebec Prospectors’ Association (now the Quebec Mineral Exploration Association) and convinced the provincial government to introduce flow-through financing for mineral exploration in Quebec.

Arizona Mining COO Donald Taylor was awarded the Thayer Lindsley Award for his discovery of the Taylor lead-zinc-silver deposit in 2014. The company’s 61-million-tonne deposit is expected to reach production in 2020.

Iamgold and Sumitomo Metal Mining won the Viola R. MacMillan Award for their joint venture Côté gold project. Sumitomo purchased a 30 per cent interest in Côté in June 2017 from Iamgold for US$195 million. When it enters production in 2021 the open-pit mine is expected to produce an average of 320,000 ounces of gold per year over a 17-year life.

The PDAC 2018 convention will take place in Toronto from March 4-7, 2018.