Western Australian Minister for Mines and Petroleum Norman Moore was on hand to formally open the exhibition at Perth’s Central Park building last Thursday night in front of hundreds of attendees from the mining industry.
“This industry is constantly faced with growing public demand to raise the bar and meet higher standards in everything it does, so exhibitions like this are important in highlighting the good work and high standards that are being achieved,” he said.
“Twenty-five years ago Snowden was established in Western Australia as a small husband and wife team and has grown to become an internationally recognised organisation within the resources sector, which is testament in itself as to what can be achieved when we put our minds to it.”
Snowden chief executive officer Craig Morley took the opportunity to reflect on the company’s 25-year milestone.
“From its small beginnings, Snowden has grown with the mining industry in WA and we now support the Australian junior companies as well as the global majors,” he said.
“The company now has a global footprint with teams resident in all established mining regions and a focus on the emerging regions in Africa, Latin America, Russia and China.
“Having delivered exceptional services and advice to our clients for the past 25 years we are excited about the next 25 years.”
The judging panel for the photographic competition was again led by renowned Australian photographer Richard Woldendorp.
“As the quality of the submissions have improved, the enormous task of making the right choices for the exhibition has become more daunting,” Morley said.
“Richard’s input and experience is invaluable.”
Judging was so tough that the panel decided there was no one picture that stood out as portraying “significant achievements in mining”, but Javier Arcenillas was named as the overall winner for his picture The industrialisation of lithium in Bolivia.
Le Cong Binh was awarded Best Composition for his image “The road to the quarry”
Morley also announced the winner of the People’s Choice award, Nikki Sandino’s “Mine workers’ children living near quarry site are actively participating in tree planting in their community”, which won with more than 50% of online votes.
Jim Ward accepted his award in the technology and innovation in mining category for his picture “High wire act with a difference”, taken at Koolan Island.
The top 65 images, which were seen to embody the theme “celebrating the mining industry” will go on tour after a two-week run in Perth.
It will then move to the Riverside Centre in Brisbane from the end of October before going to South Africa in February 2013.
This article first appeared in ILN's sister publication MiningNews.net.
