Shaniqwa Stuart, Qube/BHP

Award: Indigenous Young Achiever
Shaniqwa Stuart is a second-year apprentice, diesel mechanic at Prominent Hill through BHP contractor Qube.

Outside of work, Shaniqwa is an advocate for her community, and a strong believer in supporting the younger Indigenous generation. She believes it is important to have a work life balance so in between employment and community support, Shaniqwa is heavily engaged with the local Port Augusta netball team.

Samantha Squires, BHP

Award: Young Achiever
Samantha had worked with many leaders whose leadership styles she did not like and was often told she would need to 'strip her own identity back' to imitate this style if she wanted to be successful. Instead she has worked to use her array of skills to prove that it’s possible to be a successful leader in a way that is positive, enthusiastic and caring.

This has resulted in Samantha leading a team of over 200 employees and contractors, managing a $160M budget, and being a sponsor for the most transformational project in the Olympic Dam capital pipeline.

Santos – Santos Aboriginal Power Cup

Award: Community and collaboration (energy)
The Santos Aboriginal Power Cup is an innovative program which leverages the power of sport to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander secondary students to finish their schooling.

Santos supports Power Community Limited (PCL), the community arm of the Port Adelaide Football Club, to deliver the education-based strategy with a competitive AFL carnival as its centrepiece. It promotes positive lifestyle choices, career opportunities, and Aboriginal culture for Year 10 to 12 students.

Visit Santos website: https://www.santos.com/

BHP – Indigenous procurement performance

Award: Community and collaboration (resources)
Over the last three years BHP Olympic Dam, in partnership with Indigenous businesses, delivered transformative change in the way they worked together.

Their strategy increased their overall spend with Indigenous businesses from $2M (FY2021) to over $100M (FY2024), an increase of 4,900%. They are proud to partner with 37 South Australian Indigenous businesses, who are generating jobs, training, income and opportunities in their communities across the state.

Visit BHP website: https://www.bhp.com/

MAC Trade Services – Virtual power plants and the SA energy transition

Award: Environment (energy)
MAC Trade Services has been at the forefront of energy conservation in South Australia, launching the state’s first Virtual Power Plant incentive program under the Retailer Energy Productivity Scheme (REPS) and driving household electrification through its customer portal. Partnering with SA Power Networks and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) on the 'Energy Masters' project, MAC is electrifying 500 homes with advanced technology, providing insights into energy use and supporting South Australians to transition off gas.

With over a thousand participants in the VPP program, MAC is lowering energy costs, reducing emissions, and setting a new standard for sustainable living, making renewable energy more accessible and affordable for everyone.

Visit MAC Trade Services:  https://mactradeservices.com.au/

Osmoflo – Osmoflo and Adchem waste minimisation

Award: Environment (resources)
Osmoflo were engaged to design and construct a water treatment plant to recycle the wastewater from the Adchem Copper Mineral site in the mid-north of South Australia approximately 10 years ago.

In that time, working with the client from production, operations and maintenance capabilities, Osmoflo has been able to consistently achieve 90% recovery of their Brackish Water Reverse Osmosis plant, with the reject water being put through a sea water reverse osmosis unit to provide an additional 40% recovery. A secondary Ultra Filtration (UF) system was installed to treat primary UF system backwash, which has a 100% recovery as a crossflow unit.

Visit Osmoflow website: https://osmoflo.com/
Visit Adchem website: https://adchemaust.com.au/

ElectraNet and Daitum – Work scheduling optimisation using advanced prescriptive analytics

Award: Productivity improvement (energy)
In a state with the world’s highest penetration of variable renewable energy, the challenge is steep – outage windows are shrinking as network complexity grows. With fewer opportunities to take assets offline, at ElectraNet we knew we had to make every moment count. ElectraNet’s approach to prescriptive analytics minimises the number of required outages by maximising what we can achieve during each one, keeping the lights on and the power flowing across the state.

Partnering with Daitum, ElectraNet developed seven tailor-made models that enable their teams to develop plans faster. By automating routine tasks, they’ve boosted efficiency and ensured critical transmission assets stay in service longer.

Visit Electranet website: https://www.electranet.com.au/
Visit Daitum website: daitum.com/">https://daitum.com/

Agile Mining Services and RaptorTech Pty Ltd – RaptorOS fleet management

Award: Productivity improvement (resources)
Agile Mining Services is the principal contractor at Peak Iron Mines Peculiar Knob and Buzzard mines and has successfully implemented RaptorOS to revolutionise their contract mining operations. By deploying this advanced fleet management system developed by RaptorTech, AMS has achieved a 23% reduction in fuel consumption and emissions, a 17% increase in productivity, and a total cost saving of $3.6 million in just 12 months.

Visit Agile Mining Services website:  https://www.agilemining.com.au/
Visit RaptorTech website: https://www.raptortech.com.au/

Santos – Healthier Me: Helping you live well and work well

Award: Health and safety, inclusion and wellbeing (energy)
Santos has implemented the Healthier Me program - an innovative, holistic and highly personalised approach to health and wellbeing. Putting their people at the centre, Healthier Me acknowledges that every person has their own unique lives to lead, goals to achieve and challenges to overcome - at work and at home. The program puts the tools and resources in the hands of employees to choose what is most relevant for them. Through its multifaceted approach, the Healthier Me strategy has enhanced employee wellbeing and contributed to a thriving and cohesive organisational environment.

As one pillar of the initiative, a purpose-built GP medical clinic was trialled in the Adelaide office. Including telehealth services, it was extremely successful with 2,674 free consultations in its first six months. In the same time period, Santos also recorded a decrease in average monthly absenteeism rates by over 20%.

Visit Santos website: https://www.santos.com/

BHP – Olympic Dam virtual reality hazard identification

Award: Health and safety, inclusion and wellbeing (resources)
Olympic Dam Asset Training introduced virtual reality (VR) technology as a new mode of digital and online learning for training new starters. VR was introduced to help increase learning retention and allow their people to practice real world skills safely and away from site pressures.

Two VR training modules were developed with a specific focus on hazard identification linking to damaging energies which are present in their surface and underground operations.

They achieved superior business results in training by using immersive learning technology. Asset training transformed the way they train people, which in turn, has made their asset and people safer.

Visit BHP website: https://www.bhp.com/

Young achievers

Recognising the value, exceptional achievements and significant impact of inspirational and dedicated South Australians in the energy, resources and/or equipment, technology and services sectors aged 30 years or younger.

Indigenous young achiever

Winner: Lakita Kean, BHP

Young achiever

Winner: Georgia Sleep, BHP

Finalists:
Lakita Kean, BHP
Jack Mesecke, MaxMine
Siddharth Shah, MaxMine
Peter Weli, BHP

Energy sector

Projects and programs in the energy generation, transmission, distribution, retail, energy products and services sectors.

Community

Winner: ElectraNet Pty Ltd and Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation for Eyre Peninsula Link: Cultural heritage monitoring program

Commendation: Royal Automobile Association of South Australia for RAA Charge - South Australia's EV charging network

Environment

Winner: The University of Adelaide for Enhancing underground hydrogen storage assessment via forward geo-mechanical modelling during cyclic injection and production: Leveraging surface data from tiltmeters to assess deformation source intensity

Health and safety

Winner: SA Power Networks for River Murray floods

Commendation: SANTOS for Improving health and wellbeing habits in a high-risk workforce

Inclusion and wellbeing

Winner: Santos for Advocating for change - promoting an inclusive work environment

Innovation and collaboration

Winner:   SA Power Networks for Flexible exports

Commendation:  NDE Solutions and Santos for A corrosion identification and measurement product

Resources sector

Projects and programs in the resources exploration or operations for minerals, extractives or petroleum sectors.

Community

Winner: BHP and Spencer Gulf Cities for Upper Spencer Gulf socio-economic knowledge base update

Commendation: BHP and Antakirinja Matu-Yandunytjatjara Aboriginal Corporation for Resource industry pathways

Commendation: BHP and Healthy Environs for The community hub at Roxby Downs in South Australia - bringing Roxby Downs and surrounding communities together

Environment category

Commendation: Hanson Construction Materials for Planting day at White Rock Quarry

Health and safety

Winner: KAEFER Integrated Services for KAEFER SAFE hands campaign

Commendation: BHP for Whole body vibration project

Inclusion and wellbeing category

Winner: KAEFER Integrated Services for KAEFER scaffold traineeship program

Commendation: BHP for Improving inlcusion and career pathways for Indigenous employees at Olympic Dam

Innovation and collaboration

Winner: BHP and CiDRA Minerals Processing for Partnership for first of a kind grind circuit rougher at Carrapateena

Commendation: Custom Mining Solutions for Void monitor

Productivity and improvement

Winner: Fleet Space Technologies for ExoSphere by Fleet®

Commendation: Liberty Primary Steel for Slag-free tapping

Engineering, Technology and Services (ETS) sector

Recognising excellence in innovation and collaboration, showcasing vision, opportunity and/or transformational change

Innovation and collaboration category

Winner: GPA Engineering and YES Group for RedMud Green Energy projects

Productivity and improvement category

Winner: Digital Twinning Australia for Copper electro-refinery digital twin pilot project

Energy sector

Innovation and collaboration category

Recognising excellence in innovation and collaboration, showcasing vision, opportunity and/or transformational change

Winner: Amber Electric for SmartShift^TM

Winner: Planet Ark Power and Epic Energy for IKEA eleXsys Microgrid

Environment category

Recognising demonstrated excellence in delivering positive environmental outcomes with projects including but not limited to environmental engineering, scientific research, training or education, waste minimisation or energy conservation

Commendation: Delorean Corporation and Blue Lake Milling for Blue Lake Milling SA bioenergy plant

Community category

Recognising demonstrated excellence in working with a local , regional or state-wide community to ensure positive outcomes - including but not limited to partnering in decision making, community events, activities to develop an external engagement culture in the workplace and employment of local contractors or community organisations

Winner: Australia Gas Networks for Hydrogen Park South Australia community engagement program

Commendation: EPS Energy, AMP, Barngala Determination Aboriginal Corporation and Norman Waterhouse for Yoorndoo Ilga Solar

Resources sector

Productivity and improvement category

Recognising a project or product that has improved efficiency, productivity or competitiveness including new engineering methods, data management systems, training programs and energy efficiencies

Commendation: Hallett Group for Kulpara Quarry - process and stability improvements

Innovation and collaboration category

Recognising excellence in innovation and collaboration, showcasing vision, opportunity and/or transformational change

Commendation: OZ Minerals and Qube Holdings for Vision Electric

Commendation: PRIF Mining Consortium for Unlocking complex resources through lean processing

Health and safety category

Recognising demonstrated excellence in the development and/or implementation of an innovative solution to identified work health and safety issues

Winner: Santos for How to drive around the world 500 times safely - the Santos story

Commendation: Wilco Technologies for Trajectaflex resin firing system

Inclusion and wellbeing category

Recognising demonstrated excellence in the development and/or implementation of an innovative solution to identified work health and safety issues

Commendation: BHP Olympic Dam for Creating a safe and inclusive workplace culture

Environment category

Recognising demonstrated excellence in delivering positive environmental outcomes with projects including but not limited to environmental engineering, scientific research, training or education, waste minimisation or energy conservation

Winner: Beach Energy for Dombey 3D geophysical survey

Commendation: Alligator Energy for Mineral exploration improves biodiversity and pastoral condition

Community category

Recognising demonstrated excellence in working with a local , regional or state-wide community to ensure positive outcomes - including but not limited to partnering in decision making, community events, activities to develop an external engagement culture in the workplace and employment of local contractors or community organisations

Winner: Uni Hub Spencer Gulf Inc for Growing our own skilled workforce

Commendation: Adbri Limited for Trainee program building community capability

ETS sector

Recognising excellence in innovation and collaboration, showcasing vision, opportunity and/or transformational change

Innovation and collaboration category

Winner: MaxMine for MaxMine carbon

Commendation: Erizon for Tailings storage facility dust management project

Indigenous young achiever

Winner: Chandrika Coulthard, Byrnecut/OZ Minerals Alliance

Winner: Tyrone Strangways, Agile Mining Services

Young achiever

Winner: Matthew Forrest, Founder and Managing Director Economical Energy

Finalist: Aaron Barbaro, OZ Minerals

Finalist: Fontae Franks, OZ Minerals

Finalist: Matthew Musolino, OZ Minerals