Now in their 7th year, the MNN Awards recognise the standout performers of the previous financial years across four categories: Explorer, Deal, CEO and Emerging Leader.
We asked the industry for nominations in July, which allowed us to come up with our 2023 shortlisted nominees. Our panel of industry experts then voted on a winner in each category.
Our judging panel this year was led by MNN editor Kristie Batten with assistance from RFC Ambrian's Cian Caffrey, Lion Selection's Hedley Widdup, Cube Consulting's Rebecca Prain, Argonaut's Liam Twigger and MNN columnists Allan Trench and John Sykes.
Azure Minerals took out Explorer of the Year for the Andover lithium discovery in Western Australia's Pilbara region.
Azure is a previous MNN Awards nominee for the Andover nickel-copper discovery.
Andover has an exploration target of 100-240 million tonnes at 1-1.5% lithium oxide, which, if confirmed, would make it one of the largest lithium deposits in Australia.
Azure exploration manager Graham Leaver accepted the award and paid tribute to the company's team, which includes managing director Tony Rovira, chief geologist Joshua Combs and exploration superintendent Paul Smith.
The other nominees were WA1 Resources for the Luni niobium discovery in WA, Rumble Resources for the Earaheedy maiden zinc resource in WA, Dreadnought Resources for the Yin rare earths discovery in WA, Patriot Battery Metals for the Corvette lithium discovery in Quebec, Great Boulder Resources for the Side Well maiden gold resource in WA and Gascoyne Resources for the Never Never gold discovery in WA.
The runner-up was WA1.
The nominees for Deal of the Year were Genesis Minerals for the acquisition of the Leonora gold operations, Wyloo Metals for the takeover of Mincor Resources, Ramelius Resources for the takeover of Breaker Resources and Catalyst Metals for its consolidation of the Marymia gold belt.
The winner was Genesis, which joined the ASX 200 yesterday off the back of the acquisition.
While accepting the award, chief financial officer Morgan Ball said he'd been involved in many deals over his career but the acquisition from St Barbara of Leonora was one of the more challenging.
The company fought off a late offer by Silver Lake Resources to acquire the assets, with the deal eventually closing on June 30, more than a year after Genesis and St Barbara first confirmed merger talks.
The runner-up was Wyloo.
Bellevue Gold's Darren Stralow was named CEO of the Year.
Stralow was in Colorado for the Gold Forum Americas but sent an acceptance video, saying there was hopefully more to come from the company as it moved towards first gold production in the coming months.
The other CEO of the Year nominees were Wyloo's Luca Giacovazzi, Latin Resources' Chris Gale, Pilbara Minerals' Dale Henderson and Dreadnought's Dean Tuck.
The nominees for Emerging Leader of the Year, sponsored by SGS, were Alex Rovira from Brightstar Resources, James Champion de Crespigny from Catalyst Metals, Rowena Smith from Australian Strategic Materials, Luke Creagh from Ora Banda Mining and Graham Arvidson from Australian Vanadium.
Champion de Crespigny was named as the winner and was presented his award by SGS natural resources general manager Australia Juan Smith.
During his acceptance speech, Champion de Crespigny stressed that the company's transformational 2023, which saw it complete two deals to consolidate the Marymia gold belt, was a team effort.
The joint runners-up were Arvidson and Rovira.
