PDAC named Golden Star the environmental and social responsibility award winner, citing its commitment to sustainable development and support for employees and local businesses.

The company has been in Ghana for 18 years, has two producing gold mines and has invested in infrastructure, medical programmes, education and agriculture.

President and CEO Sam Coetzer said he was humbled by the passion and commitment shown by the team to working in a respectful way and ensuring that a positive and sustainable legacy remained beyond the lives of Golden Star's operations.

"However this award does not just belong to Golden Star, but to all of our partners in Ghana, and to them I give my deepest thanks for working alongside us to create long term, sustainable value for all of our stakeholders," he said.

IAMGold Corporation (CN:IMG) and Sumitomo Metal Mining (TYO:5713) were jointly awarded the Viola R. MacMillan award for their "breakthrough" joint venture agreement to develop the Côté Gold project in Ontario in a challenging financing environment.

Explorers Arizona Mining (CN:AZ) won the Thayer Lindsley award for the 2014 Taylor lead-zinc-silver discovery in Arizona and NexGen Energy (CN:NXE) won the Bill Dennis award for the 2014 discovery of the Arrow uranium deposit in Saskatchewan.

Individual award winners were Whitecap Dakota Nation member Lana Eagle, who won the Skookum Jim award for her contribution to industry; Jean Descarreaux, winning the special achievement award for founding the Quebec Mineral Exploration Association; and Ted Reeve, who received the distinguished service award for his invaluable, volunteer contributions to PDAC over 16 years.

Recipients will be celebrated at the awards gala on March 6 during the annual PDAC Convention in Toronto.