Recognising company, organisation and individual achievements in the South Australian energy and mining sectors.
Now in its 13th year the Premier's Awards in Energy and Mining showcase innovative approaches and technology, applaud leading practice, and acknowledge the delivery of exceptional leadership in South Australia, along with recognising the employment and business opportunities and the positive economic, social and environmental contribution these sectors make to South Australia.
Our Official Partner: Department for Environment and Water
Winners: 2024 Awards in Energy and Mining
The winners were announced at the Awards dinner on Thursday 21 November 2024 at SkyCity Adelaide.
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/
