The jury and coordinators of the 2014 Quarry Life Awards (QLA) competition have embarked on a two-day duty tour of the project sites of the five national finalists.

The day was also used to officially announce 30th September deadline for the submission of the final reports by the finalists, where top three projects would be identified afterwards to compete at the global level.

The joint tour took the team to the Beposo and Yongwa quarry sites of the leading cement producer, GHACEM Ltd, where the finalists chose to conduct their research.

Ms. Bridget Akpably and Kwasi Boadu Ntiamoah undertook their projects at the Beposo quarry in the Western Region, whilst Messrs Reuben Danso Mintah, Jonathan Hogarh (Dr.) and Millicent Amekugbe – chose the Yongwa quarry at the Eastern Region. The team were met on arrival by Mr. Noble Biney and Emmanuel Amoako, Plant Manager of Beposo and Quarry Engineer of Yongwa respectively.

The QLA is a national-cum-global competition organised by the Heidelberg Cement (HC) Group and its subsidiaries, including Ghacem Ltd, to source ideas on effective regeneration and management of biodiversity at its mining sites.

Essentially, it seeks and rewards the most effective ideas on possible ways to reclaim lands in countries where the HC Group operates globally.

As a competition, the top three national finalists earn automatic qualifications to represent their respective countries at the international level where the best of the best are selected and awarded.

Briefing the media, the QLA National Coordinator, Kwabena Labi Addo, explained the duty tour was an exercise to help the jury and coordinators fairly assess the five projects.

Through this, he said, they would assist the finalists in reviewing and fine-tuning their final reports for submission.

“We’re optimistic that this year’s finalists will produce excellent findings which GHACEM is patiently waiting to work with,” he said.

A member of the jury, Dr. Erasmus Owusu, applauded the work so far done by the finalist, expressing the optimism that their quality and depth would enrich Ghana’s participation on the international stage this year. 

 “It is gratifying to notice that some of the projects even have value addition,” he said, explaining that aside showing ways to protect biodiversity, some of the projects also showed some commercial value.

This, he noted, made the QLA initiative through which students with interest in research could create jobs with their innovation of ideas.

On his part Mr. Yaw Kwakye, Manager, Climate Change Unit at the Forestry Commission who is also a jury member called on other Corporate bodies especially those in the mining sector to emulate such project from Ghacem noting that it encourages innovation and creativity in land reclamation to safeguard the natural resources.