Following a month-long nomination process, the MiningNews.Net editorial team faced the difficult task of combing through the submissions to finalise a shortlist.
MNN is Australia's leading daily mining investment and finance news service.
Editor Kristie Batten thanked readers who took the time to nominate.
"We were impressed with the calibre of the nominations, which made the task of narrowing them down all the more difficult," she said.
There was some robust discussion and debate, but the nominees are …
CEO of the Year
Bob Vassie - St Barbara
Jake Klein - Evolution Mining
Bill Beament - Northern Star Resources
Amanda Lacaze - Lynas Corporation
Rohan Williams - Dacian Gold
New/Emerging Leader of the Year
Patrick Walta - New Century Resources
Brendan Borg - Celsius Resources
Jim Simpson - Aurelia Metals
Explorer of the Year
Breaker Resources for the Lake Roe gold project outside Kalgoorlie
Celsius Resources for the Opuwo cobalt project in Namibia
Xanadu Resources for the Kharmagtai copper-gold project in Mongolia
Peel Mining for its Cobar polymetallic projects in New South Wales
SolGold for the Cascabel copper-gold project in Ecuador
Deal and/or Merger of the Year
Aurelia Metals US$58 million acquisition of Peak
Highlands Pacific's cobalt streaming deal with Cobalt 27
Kidman Resources' joint venture with SQM
Yancoal Australia's US$2.45 billion coal acquisitions
Northern Star Resources and Westgold Resources' South Kalgoorlie deal
Over the next few weeks, we will be profiling the nominees which will shed some light on the rationale for their inclusion on the shortlist.
During that time, our judging panel will deliberate and decide on the final winners.
The winners will be announced in the week starting July 23.
