YMP Annual Awards

The YMP Awards, presented in association with The Northern Miner, 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, Peter Munk and Eira Thomas.

 

2020 AWARDS

 

Criteria for Nomination:

 

 

2020 Winners

 

 

David Cataford

 

David joined Champion Iron in 2014 and has been working in the iron industry and the Labrador Through for the past 15 years. He was appointed President and Chief Executive officer of Champion Iron on April 1, 2019. As Chief Operating Officer of the Company, he played a key role in the management team, delivering the successful restart of the Bloom Lake Mine by managing its construction and commissioning and building a team composed of more than 400 top mining talents. Prior to joining Champion Iron, David held senior management positions within Cliff Natural Resources Inc.

 

His experience in iron ore mining includes mineral characterization projects at Bloom Lake and for AccerlorMittal at Mount Wright, as well as adapting the recovery circuit to meet new customer demands in order to maximize profit margins. David is also the co-founder of the North Shore and Labrador Mineral Processing Society. David holds a bachelor’s degree in mining engineering from Laval University.

 

 

Ashley Kirwan

 

Ashley Kirwan is the Co-founder/Co-owner, President & CEO at Orix Geoscience; a geological consultant firm with over 60 employees of which 50% are female and 26% foreign-born. The company is a leading geological firm in terms of culture, quality of work, and creative business partnerships.

 

Since its inception in 2012, Orix has exponentially grown in revenues, employees, and projects during a market downturn. They currently operate out of their 3 offices (Toronto, Sudbury, and Winnipeg) and provide a full cycle of geological and geomatic services to junior, mid-tiers and majors. Corporate culture is a fundamental value at Orix and in 2019, they received the Employee Recommended Workplace Award from Morneau Shepell and the Globe and Mail.

 

Raised in Sudbury, Ashley earned both a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Geology at Laurentian University. In 12 years, Ashley has worked throughout North and South America, including Sudbury, Nunavut, Nevada and Ecuador.

 

In 2016, Ashley was named in the 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining, and in 2018, was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Rising Star Award from LU. More recently Ashley was selected as one of the Top 40 Under 40 award winners for the City of Greater Sudbury.

 

Ashley is committed to leading a new generation of geoscientists in the mining industry and the team at Orix are breaking boundaries for many woman geoscientists.

 

2019 Winners

 

 

Jose Vizquerra

 

Mr. Vizquerra is currently Executive Vice President of Strategic Development & Director at Osisko Mining. For over four years, Mr. Vizquerra served as the President & CEO of Oban Mining Corp. (“Oban”), where he led the successful change of business strategy that resulted in Oban’s acquisition of Corona Gold, Eagle Hill Exploration Corp. and Ryan Gold to form what is now Osisko Mining. Mr. Vizquerra previously worked as Head of Business Development for Compania de Minas Buenaventura, prior to which he worked as production and exploration geologist at the Red Lake gold mine. He is currently a board member of Alio Gold Inc, Sierra Metals and Discovery Metals. Mr. Vizquerra holds a M.Sc. from Queens University in MINEX, and is a Qualified Person (AIGP). Mr Vizquerra is currently advancing the General Management Program (GMP) at the Wharton School of Business.

 

 

Andrée St Germain

 

Ms. St-Germain is the Chief Financial Officer of Integra Resources Corp (TSXV:ITR). She is an experienced mining finance executive with an extensive background in banking, mining finance and financial management. She began her career in investment banking for Dundee Capital Markets Inc. As an investment banker, Ms. St-Germain worked exclusively with mining companies on M&A advisory and financing. In 2013, Ms. St-Germain joined Golden Queen Mining Co. Ltd. as CFO. During her tenure at Golden Queen, she played an instrumental role in securing project finance and overseeing Golden Queen as it transitioned from development and construction to commercial production. She joined Integra Gold as CFO in early 2017 and helped oversee the sale to Eldorado Gold Corporation in July 2017 for C$590 million. Ms. St-Germain is currently a director of Barkerville Gold Mines (TSXV:BGM) and IDM Mining (TSXV: IDM).

 

2018 Winners

 

 

Stephen de Jong

 

Stephen de Jong holds 10 years experience in the mining industry and is currently the Chairman of Integra Resources, Director of GFG Resources and recently became the CEO of VRify, a Vancouver based tech start-up which is using technology to reinvent how companies engage with their stakeholders and investors. In 2012, at the age of 28, Stephen was appointed CEO of Integra Gold, a Quebec-focused junior exploration company. Over a five year period Stephen built and led a team who successfully raised over $150M in challenging market conditions while growing the business from a $10 million exploration company through to its $590 million sale to Eldorado Gold in July 2017.  Stephen's influence and passion for helping shape the next generation of exploration and mining was demonstrated through Integra’s $1 Million Gold Rush Challenge held in 2016, and as co-host alongside Goldcorp of #DisruptMining 2017. These two events focused on accelerating innovation and the adoption of technology across the mining industry.

 

 

Catherine Raw

 

Catherine is the executive responsible for the North America region. She was formerly Chief Financial Officer of Barrick. Catherine joined the company in May 2015 as Executive Vice-President, Business Performance, and was previously co-manager of BlackRock’s flagship mining funds. Catherine also worked for Anglo American in London and Johannesburg, and as a geological field assistant in Sweden. She holds the chartered financial analyst designation, a master’s degree in natural sciences and an MSc in mineral project appraisal.