Ghacem launches 2nd Quarry Life Awards campaign

Thirty-five (35) proposals have been presented for consideration in the second edition of Ghacem’s Quarry Life Awards (QLA) campaign.

Out of that number, “the strongest five proposals” will be selected by a jury and given 500 euros each to commence work on their research.

The QLA Communications Coordinator, Mr. Solomon Ayiah, disclosed this when he led a delegation of the campaign to pay a courtesy call on the Minister of Environment, Science Technology and Innovation, Dr. Joe OtengAgyei, on Thursday.

The delegation which also includedMr. Kwabena Larbi Addo, the QLA National Coordinator, was received on behalf of the Minister by the Chief Director, Dr. Sylvester Anemana, and the Director of Finance and Administration, Mr. Kwasi Agyei Tabi.

The call on the Minister, the delegation indicated, was to officially inform the ministry about the ongoing second edition of the campaign, and also to express the gratitude of Ghacem Ltd. for the immense support the ministry has given the campaign since its inception last year.

The QLA Campaign is an annual competition organised by the Heidelberg Cement (HC) Group and its subsidiaries across the globe, including Ghacem Limited of Ghana, to source ideas toward the effective regeneration and management of biodiversity in its mining sites across the world.

In essence, the campaign seeks to reward the most effective ideas on possible ways to reclaim lands in areas where the HC Group operates globally. As an award scheme, the QLA is organised first at the national level after which the top-three winners from each country are selected to compete at the international level.

Mr. Ayiah noted that this year the first, second and third national winners will take home amounts of 5,000, 3,000 and 1,500 euro respectively while the global winner gets 30,000 euro.

He was convinced that this year’s national winners will emulate the example of last year’s winner, Mr. Paul K. Nsiah, of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, who emerged second at the international competition.“We will even up our game this year to ensure one of Ghana’s top finalists emerges winner globally.”

For his part, Mr. K. Larbi Addo described the enthusiasm for this year’s national competition as “impressive compared to last year”, and was, therefore, sure that the researchers will come out with unique, innovative ideas on land-reclamation.

He said to ensure success of the 2014 event the jury had visited and elicited the buy-in of the geology, mining, biodiversity and environmental science faculties of all the public universities in the country.

“And after the top-five proposals have been selected, we will open our various mining sites to the contestants to start their research,” he noted.

On behalf of the Minister, the Chief Director commended Ghacem Ltd. and its mother company, Heidelberg Group, for “sustaining this research initiative and making it an annual event”.

He disclosed that as an initiative on land-reclamation after quarrying, the Ministry will study the QLA module to see its suitability for adoption and possible legislation to guide mining activities in the country.

“As a ministry, we will do further studies on the QLA; and when we are clear on everything, support it by legislation and make it a standard norm for all mining companies to comply with,” he indicated.