Stockhead columnist Barry FitzGerald last night received the Diggers & Dealers media award.

It is the second time FitzGerald has taken out the award in the 16 years that it has been presented.

In fact, he was the very first recipient of the media award back in 2003 when he was working for The Age.

FitzGerald has covered a fair whack of small cap resources players during his two years at Stockhead.

“I am basically a lazy journalist so the rich spread of stories from the juniors to the big caps is ready made for me,” he jokingly told Stockhead.

“Seriously though, it has always been the dynamism of the discovery, the development challenge, and the overlay of commodity peaks and troughs that has always fascinated me.

“And I know that while everyone has their BHPs and NABs, punting the junior end hoping for the next 10-bagger is something of a national pastime.”

Fitz has plenty of form writing for Stockhead in his weekly “Garimpeiro” column. He highlighted the potential of minnow Spectrum Metals (ASX:SPX) back in March, just days before the company announced it had hit a new high-grade zone of gold mineralisation at its Penny West gold project in WA.

Since then, Spectrum’s share price has rocketed 1950 per cent from a low of 0.4c to 8.2c.

He covered Breaker Resources (ASX:BRB) back in May, saying that while the company was taking its own sweet time with its Bombora discovery at the Lake Roe project, it didn’t change the fact it is one of the biggest virgin gold discoveries in the last 15 years in Western Australia.

FitzGerald also broke the news of big fat gold find in the Fraser Range made by Independence Group (ASX:IGO) and Rumble Resources (ASX:RTR) before the companies announced it.

Since then, Rumble’s share price has rallied over 23 per cent to a peak of nearly 7c, and is still ahead 12.5 per cent at 6.3c.

We know what you’re thinking: “Yeah, yeah but they’re gold stocks and the gold price is off the charts right now.” But Barry’s also been on the money when it comes to mineral sands.

He predicted in January this year that Image Resources (ASX:IMA) was due for a re-rating as it advanced towards positive cash flow from its zircon-rich Boonanarring project.

Since that article, Image’s share price has more than doubled from 14c to as high as 30c, and is still trading almost 80 per cent higher at 25c.

FitzGerald also regularly does fireside chats with prominent mining figures. Check out this one he did with another Diggers & Dealer award recipient – Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL).

You can catch his podcast every Wednesday on Stockhead, and his weekly column every Thursday.