This special issue of the Netherlands Journal of Geosciences / Geologie en Mijnbouw contains the proceedings of the Conference on the Economic Geology of Suriname, held on 16 January 2015 in The Hague, the Netherlands, to honour Dr Eddie Jharap (Fig. 1), founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Staatsolie, Suriname. At this conference the President of the Royal Netherlands Geological and Mining Society (KNGMG), Drs Lucia van Geuns, awarded him the prestigious Van Waterschoot van der Gracht Medal, the highest honour available to an earth scientist in the Netherlands. Dr Jharap expressed his gratitude in a warm and humble speech which highlighted both his strong personal motivation to contribute to the development of Suriname, and his astonishing accomplishments since the 1980s in founding and developing Staatsolie.@en