Awards recognise mining and quarrying stars

A West Coast geologist, an Auckland lab manager, and a kaiārahi and environmental compliance manager were celebrated as the stars of mining and quarrying at industry awards given out today in Hamilton.

Celebrating diversity and inclusion, Straterra, AQA, and MinEx hosted the Komatsu Women in Extractives lunch and awards ceremony.

Charlotte Buxton-Blue took out the MITO Emerging Star award for her work at Federation Mining’s underground Snowy River goldmine, near Reefton on the West Coast.

Recently promoted to Senior Geologist, Charlotte has shown innovation, playing an integral role in setting up industry best practice geological logging, mapping, and database systems. Others in the geology team look up to her, and she is managing diamond drilling contractors in a highly changing underground production environment, with challenging drilling conditions.

Charlotte Harrison was named Hanga-Aro-Rau Workforce Development Council Leader of the Year for her work as Lab Manager for Winstone Aggregates, in Auckland. Showing the difference between management and leadership, Charlotte took her commitment to health and safety outside the work gate to assist a distressed cyclist on the road. She sat with them until they felt safe. Charlotte leads from the front and is highly regarded by her team.

Tara Edwards-Tusa was awarded the Kristy Christensen Memorial Award for being a diversity champion. As Kaiārahi and Environmental Compliance Manager for Stevenson Aggregates and the inaugural co-chair for Te Ara Tika, the Māori steering committee set up by Fulton Hogan, Tara leads the continued advancement of Te Ao Māori across the companies in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Tara not only has the leadership skills to guide Stevenson Aggregates to a place of cultural inclusion, understanding and diversity, she also has the full support of her peers.

“This is the second year we have given these awards and as more women in our industry who are doing incredible work emerge, the judges’ job gets more difficult,” Straterra CEO Josie Vidal says. “We had 15 nominations across the three award categories and every single one was worthy of nomination and should be very proud of themselves.”

“We were blown away by the strength of nominations for these awards,” says AQA and MinEx CEO Wayne Scott. “Some of these women are trail blazers who have paved the way for others to join the industry and we thank them for that. Accepting diversity and valuing inclusion is important to a healthy and safe workplace.”

Vidal and Scott said they wanted to acknowledge the other award finalists including:

Emerging Star – Tegan Phillips, OceanaGold; Rosie Toto-Croucher, Stevenson Aggregates; Michaela Mulligan, OceanaGold; and Brittney Flavell, Winstone Aggregates.

Leader of the Year – Alison Paul, OceanaGold; Jo Young, Stevenson Aggregates; and Shannon Richards, OceanaGold.

Kristy Christensen Memorial – Bonnie Walker, Fulton Hogan.