Caption: Wayne Scott, AQA; Charlotte Buxton-Blue; Charlotte Harrison; Tara Edwards-Tusa; and Josie Vidal, Straterra.
The Komatsu Women in Extractives lunch and awards ceremony, celebrating diversity and inclusion, was hosted by the AQA, MinEx and Straterra in Hamilton.
“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.”
Straterra CEO Josie Vidal adds; “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. We had 15 nominations across the three award categories and every single one was worthy of nomination and should be very proud of themselves.”
Winners
Charlotte Buxton-Blue at Federation Mining’s new underground Snowy River goldmine, near Reefton, won the MITO Emerging Star award. Recently promoted to Senior Geologist, the judges said Charlotte has shown innovation, playing an integral role in setting up industry best practice geological logging, mapping, and database systems.
Her colleagues in the geology team look up to her, and she is managing diamond drilling contractors in a 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.
Tara Edwards-Tusa was awarded the Kristy Christensen Memorial Award for being a diversity champion. Tara works at Stevenson Aggregates and is the inaugural co-chair for Te Ara.
Worthy finalists
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
