The award, sponsored by Canaccord Genuity, Western Areas and David Flanagan, is handed out every year to a small to mid-cap Australian resources company that has excelled in all areas.

It is named after the late Sundance Resources and Western Areas director Craig Oliver, who died in a plane crash in the Congo in 2010.

The joint winners for 2021 were Bellevue Gold and Chalice Mining.

Both companies have a big few months coming up.

Bellevue is due to report a feasibility study for its namesake gold project any day now and will look to move into the construction phase by mid-year.

The company recently appointed a debt advisor to assist with financing.

Analysts are predicting average annual production of 150,000-200,000 ounces of gold, based on the current resource of 2.4 million ounces at 10 grams per tonne gold.

It is the second consecutive nomination for Bellevue.

Managing director Steve Parsons said he was proud of what the company had achieved in the past 12 months.

"It's a great project but it's got great people as well and it's the people who are the really important thing," he said.

"People strive for the vision of the company on where to grow and we certainly have the vision at Bellevue over the next 18 months to be one of the next gold producers here in Western Australia, to be one of the most profitable gold mines in Australia and have the vision to be one of greenest in Australia and that's all down to the staff and the people that really do believe in what we are doing at Bellevue."

First-time nominee Chalice is on track to report a maiden resource for the potentially world-class Julimar palladium-platinum-nickel-copper project, 70km outside Perth.

Today the company reported further positive results from metallurgical work, with phase two test work showing high palladium-nickel-copper recoveries via locked-cycle sulphide flotation.

The work has proven the ability to produce two separate, commercially attractive concentrates: a copper-PGE concentrate grading 24.7% copper, 173gpt palladium and 22gpt platinum with recoveries of over 80% copper, and a nickel-PGE concentrate grading 12.2% nickel, 21.4gpt palladium and 6.9gpt platinum with nickel recoveries of over 70%.

"We are very grateful and it gives me great pleasure to accept the award on behalf of my fantastic team, particularly the geologists who have made a great discovery just outside of Perth and we have high levels of excitement about it and we are looking to progress our discovery ahead as quickly as possible," Chalice managing director Alex Dorsch said.

The other nominees this year were De Grey Mining, Fenix Resources and Perseus Mining.

"For the first time in the history of Craig Oliver award, we have a tie," conference managing director Stewart McDonald said.

"While all five nominees delivered significant achievements throughout the past 12 months, Bellevue and Chalice stood out from the pack."

Previous winners are IGO, Silver Lake Resources, Northern Star Resources, Metals X, Evolution Mining, Pilbara Minerals, Stavely Minerals, Sirius Resources, Doray Minerals and MOD Resources, the latter three which have since been taken over.