The TRCR has several different types of awards that it gives out on an annual basis.
Jake McDonald Annual Reclamation Award &
Category Reclamation Awards
Under the auspices of the Technical and Research Committee on Reclamation a sub-committee is drawn from the group to decide on the Annual Reclamation Award winners. This typically includes the B.C. Ministry of Mining and Critical Minerals, B.C. Ministry of Environment and Parks, Mining Association of BC, Association for Mineral Exploration, BC Stone, Sand and Gravel Assocation, and Academia.
The Jake McDonald Annual Reclamation Award has been established to recognize outstanding achievement in mine reclamation in British Columbia. In addition to this award, up to five category awards may be given to recognize merit in mining reclamation.
- 2026 Media Release_TRCR
- 2025 Mine Reclamation Awards Presentation
- TERMS OF REFERENCE
- PREVIOUS RECIPIENTS
- Mine Reclamation Awards
- BHP Canada won the Jake McDonald Annual Reclamation Award. This award recognizes BHP’s progressive reclamation of the past-producing Island Copper Mine near Port Hardy at the northern end of Vancouver Island. While the mine closed in 1995, BHP has continued to support its reclamation through ongoing monitoring, adaptive management, and improvements to the site’s water management infrastructure. These efforts have strengthened environmental protection, enhanced the long-term reliability of the Pit Lake treatment system, improved operational flexibility through remote capabilities, reduced worker safety risks, and increased resilience to extreme weather and power outages. Together, these initiatives demonstrate the success of the mine’s reclamation strategy and innovative water management approach more than 30 years after closure.
BHP representative accepting the Jade award from Tim Antill. Chair, BC TRCR Awards Subcommittee
- Elk Valley Resources (EVR) and Nupqu Resource Limited Partnership secured the Steelmaking Coal Mine Reclamation Award for a leading example of progressive mine reclamation and partnership between industry and Indigenous communities. Nupqu, a Ktunaxa business, and EVR have come together to restore land with native plants grown from locally collected wild seed. Nupqu collects native seed from across the Elk Valley, building a growing seedbank that supports EVR’s reclamation efforts. Through matching species to specific reclamation sites, the program helps return native vegetation to its natural habitat while supporting biodiversity and ecosystem restoration. Each year over 60 different plant species are collected, with more than eight million seedlings planted since 2022. Beyond environmental benefits, the collaboration has created economic opportunities for the Ktunaxa Nation and fostered innovation in seed collection, propagation, and planting techniques. The program demonstrates how industry and First Nations partners can work together to achieve long-term environmental and community outcomes.
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L-R: Tim Antill, Chair, BC TRCR Awards Subcommittee; Kori Singleton, Elk Valley Resources; Aaron Higgs, Nupqu
Lifetime Achievement Award
- Glenda Ferris received a Special Tribute Award in recognition of her lifetime contributions to mine reclamation in Northern BC. For more than 40 years, Glenda has contributed towards advancing reclamation practices locally, nationally, and internationally through her work reviewing mine plans and performance, shaping policy and guidelines, and helping ensure regulatory compliance across industry and government. As Glenda could not attend, Bill Price from the TRCR committee accepted the award on her behalf.
Bill Price, formerly of NRCan and Tim Antill, Chair, BC TRCR Awards Subcommittee
Tony Milligan Book Award:
Tony Milligan was a founding member of the TRCR, a past manager of reclamation at the Elkview Mine, and a BC reclamation inspector. Throughout his career, Tony had a keen interest in increasing our understanding of mine reclamation. Each year, the Milligan Book Award is given to the paper at last year’s BC Mine Reclamation Symposium judged to best address technical and practical aspects of reclamation.
Based on a survey of Symposium participants in 2025, Matthew Barnette, Jess Rodgers, and Amanda Schoonmaker were awarded the Tony Milligan Book Award created in recognition of the contributions Tony Milligan made to mine reclamation. This year’s award was presented based on the quality of their paper, “Reclamation at the Site C hydro-electric project”, presented at last year’s symposium.
Matthew Barnette (on left) accepts the Best paper award for 2025 from Justin Straker, TRCR papers chair
2026 Jake McDonald Scholarship and Student Poster Awards
To encourage student participation in reclamation-related fields, the BC Technical and Research Committee on Reclamation has students attending to assist with the Symposia (see Student Information) and awards the Jake McDonald Memorial Scholarship, which is given to support a student (or students) in a scientific field related to reclamation. This scholarship was established in honour of Jake McDonald, former Senior Reclamation Inspector in the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources.
Rabeya Shikdar Orpa received the Jake McDonald Scholarship for Mine Reclamation Award. Rabeya is working on completing her MSc in Environmental Science program at Thompson Rivers University. She is passionate about reclamation research, and her project focuses on native species use in mine reclamation. Rabeya is conducting a large greenhouse trial that evaluates the effectiveness of various soil amendments and fertilizers in establishing native plant species in post-mining environments.
Wendy Gardner, Chair of the TRCR Scholarship Committe (on left) presents the scholarship award to Rabeya.
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- Can Zhang, a PhD student at UBC, received the Poster Award for his poster, “Physics-Informed Machine Learning for Mine Waste Rock Drainage Prediction and Climate Change Impact Assessment”.
