Criteria for the Annual Danie Krige Medal Award

Daniel Gerhardus Krige (26 August 1919 - 3 March 2013), one of South Africa's most influential mining engineers and geostatistician of international repute, passed away last year. Danie was a recipient of the Brigadier Stokes award in 1984 -this is the Institute's highest recognition of contribution to the minerals industry.

Following discussions at Office Bearers and Council during 2013 it was agreed to honour his memory and contribution to the mineral industry through three activities:

• The publication of a Danie Krige Commemorative Volume of the Journal. This is planned for March 2014 with a number of papers (37) having been submitted to the publications committee to date

• An annual Danie Krige Memorial Lecture to be facilitated by the School of Mining Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand

• The annual award of a Danie Krige medal for a qualifying geostatistics paper published by the SAIMM in the previous year.

Selection criteria

The Danie Krige Medal will be awarded annually to the author (or co-authors) of the best geostatistical paper published in the previous calendar year. Accordingly, SAIMM members would be invited to nominate and/or submit papers for consideration on an annual basis.

The following criteria will govern the award:

i. Papers on theoretical or applied geostatistics are eligible

ii. The papers must have been published in the Journal of the SAIMM in the preceding calendar year

iii. Nominations for the award may be made by a member of the SAIMM (who is not an author) or submissions may be made by the author(s)

iv. Nominations and submissions must be submitted by email in pdf format to the SAIMM for attention of the Chairperson of the Danie Krige Medal Committee;

v. An individual may only submit one paper (or be nominated, based on one paper) for the award in any year

vi. No award will be made if none of the papers in a given year meet the minimum standards of the Danie Krige Medal Committee. In evaluating papers, the committee will use the following criteria and apply their professional judgement:

a. The impact and contribution to knowledge of the paper in its specific field

b. How innovative are the ideas or techniques described in the paper

c. The relevance of the problem being addressed

d. How well the paper is written (language, structure, supporting figure etc.)

vii. Only one paper, or one series of papers on a topic by the same author, per year will qualify for the award

viii.The decision of the Danie Krige Medal Committee on the award of the medal will be final

ix. Award of a Danie Krige Medal excludes the winning paper from consideration for any other SAIMM publications awards i.e. the SAIMM Gold and Silver medals for Journal papers.

The Danie Krige medal will comprise a 38 mm diameter medal in 9 carat gold in an engraved rosewood case and carry an impression of Danie Krige on one side and the SAIMM logo on the other.

G.L. Smith

Immediate Past President, SAIMM