Carrier Lumber captured the Exporter of the Year category and New Gold mining corporation was named the Prospector or Developer of the Year at Northern B.C. Business and Technology Awards on Wednesday, part of the annual B.C. Natural Resource Forum.

The other winners were Coupon-Me-In in the e-Business category, Sparkgeo in the Technology and Industry Newsmaker of the Year category, Winton Global Homes picked up the Technology Implementer of the Year trophy, Falcon Contracting won the Aboriginal Business award (to go along with the business excellence award Falcon won earlier this winter from the B.C. Achievement Foundation), the Collaborative Research award went to Dr. Chow Lee and Welichem Biotech Inc., Investnorthwestbc.ca and partner Northern Development Initiative Trust were named the Technology Providers of the year, the John Humphreys Memorial Forest Innovator this year was Pacific Regeneration Technologies, and the Mentor of the Year was Christy Smith for her work fostering business and community partnerships for mining projects like Mount Milligan and more recently Taseko Mines.

"The award is about linkages - communities and companies working together to grow the north," said Smith, a Williams Lake resident and member of the Comox First Nation. "I see what I do as being like a matchmaker, a dating service for industry, where I do my best to put people and businesses in touch with each other if I see ways they can work together on the projects I work for. I especially want northern people to benefit most from the opportunities happening in the north."