Billionaire resources mogul Gina Rinehart will sponsor an annual $50,000 award for a miner, prospector or politician who "sticks up for the industry".

She announced the award in memory of her father's legacy at the annual Association of Mining and Exploration Companies dinner last night.

The event also paid tribute to her father, Lang Hancock, to coincide with the 60th anniversary of his discovery of iron ore in the Pilbara.

"We need people, and we have some, who are prepared to be unpopular, very unpopular in some areas of our media," Mrs Rinehart said in introducing the award, to be sponsored by her company Hancock Prospecting.

"(People) who are willing to be leaders, despite the detractors, to say things that should be heard, not avoided, in the interest of our industry and country."