The career achievements of Ross Beaty are as multi-dimensional as the man and the companies he founded and led over almost four decades. He is first and foremost a geologist with a passion for exploration and a discerning eye for projects with economic potential.

For more than half a century, Edward Thompson has contributed to the progress and prestige of the Canadian mining industry as an explorer, mine developer, company builder, and dedicated supporter of industry causes and associations.

The scarcity of jobs during the Depression years prompted a young Egil Lorntzsen to pursue a prospecting career, starting in the Bridge River gold camp of British Columbia. But success was not to come until decades later, when he made an “elephant” copper discovery in nearby Highland Valley.

Canada’s recent emergence as a centre of excellence for diamond exploration and production owes much to the pioneering efforts of John Williamson, a brilliant geologist from McGill University who discovered, built and operated the highly successful Williamson diamond mine - also known as Mwadui - in Tanganyika (now Tanzania).

John Hansuld has served Canada’s mining and minerals sector with distinction as a pioneering geochemist, entrepreneurial company-builder and dedicated industry advocate. As a scientist, he advanced the application of geochemical techniques to mineral exploration and enhanced the profile and prestige of its practitioners.

Ronald Netolitzky is an accomplished Canadian geologist who has always remained an independent-minded prospector at heart. He recognized and helped realize the potential of the Snip and Eskay Creek properties in northwest British Columbia, which became two of Canada’s most successful, high-grade precious metal mines.