Toronto (June 17, 2019) — The Frank Arnott Award Committee is delighted to announce that the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) will proudly host the inaugural Frank Arnott - Next Generation Explorers Award focused exclusively on bringing together the education and mineral resource sectors to address key industry challenges around the utilization and interpretation of exploration-relevant data. The Frank Arnott challenge is intended to provide a means for geoscience students to “bridge the real world skills gap” by working collaboratively on an unstructured problem that will hone both their university-acquired and collaborative group skillsets on relevant applications used in the minerals exploration industry.
“The future success of our industry and its ability to create prosperity and positive change for communities around the world rests in future generations leading the way,” says PDAC President Felix Lee. “These students will develop and define the landscape of tomorrow, and we are honored that the best and brightest will gather and be recognized at PDAC 2021.”
This challenge is open to students who are either currently enrolled in an undergraduate or post-graduate Earth Science degree. Students will have the opportunity to collaborate within multi-disciplinary groups, gain hands-on experience working with modern data types encountered in real-world employment scenarios, improve leadership and team-based soft skills, receive feedback and recognition by the mineral exploration industry, as well as expand industry networks and employment opportunities. The finalist presentations and awards ceremony for Frank Arnott - Next Generation Explorers Award will take place during the PDAC convention in March 2021.
“We’re excited to collaborate with the PDAC in bringing forward the Frank Arnott - Next Generation Explorers Award” says Ken Witherly, one of the founding committee members of the Frank Arnott Award. “Both organisations share a similar passion to support our future geoscientists.”
The Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada is the leading voice of the mineral exploration and development community. With over 7,500 members around the world, PDAC’s work centres on supporting a competitive, responsible mineral sector. PDAC is known worldwide for its annual PDAC Convention—the premier international event for the industry—that has attracted over 25,000 people from 135 countries in recent years and will next be held March 1-4, 2020 in Toronto. Please visit www.pdac.ca.
The Next Generation Explorers Award is a non-profit organisation, made up of volunteers, that are committed to supporting our future generation of explorers through collaborative and relevant events like the Frank Arnott Award. For further information on participating or sponsorship, please go to our website at
www.frankarnottaward.com.