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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Two Yellowknife organizations are receiving prestigious awards from the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada.

Nuna Group of Companies employees George Kavanna, left, and Allen Pangon at the company's Hope Bay site. The company has been named the 2012 recipient of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada's Skookum Jim Award for aboriginal achievement. - courtesy of Nuna Logistics Ltd.

The Yellowknife Mine Training Society and the Nuna Group of Companies are being honoured by the national mineral industry body for "outstanding contributions to and excellence" in the industry.

"We are very honoured to be the 2012 recipient for the Skookum Jim Award for aboriginal achievement," Nuna Logistics Ltd. CEO Mervyn Hempenstall said, adding founding and longtime board member Charlie Lyall will accept the award on behalf of Nuna.

Formed in 1993 to provide mining and construction services across the North, the 51 per cent Inuit-owned company employs more than 600 people.

The Yellowknife Mine Training Society, which is receiving the 2012 Special Achievement Award, has trained more than 850 people, and placed 600 workers in the Northern mine and mine services sector. The prospectors association selected the mine training society for "providing mining companies with access to a much-needed pool of skilled workers in the North," and providing aboriginal people in the NWT with opportunities to develop job skills.

Other award recipients to be honoured at the association's awards evening on March 5 in Toronto include Detour Gold Corp. president and CEO Gerald Panneton, who will receive the Bill Dennis Award for prospecting success for the advancement of the company's Detour Lake gold project in Ontario, and the Mining Association of Canada, which is receiving the Environmental and Social Responsibility Award for its Towards Sustainable Mining initiative, which aims to improve the mining industry's overall performance.

According to its website, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada has 7,695 individual members, including prospectors, developers, geoscientists, consultants, mining executives and students, and 110 corporate members, including senior, mid-size and junior mining companies.

Its awards program dates back to 1977.

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