Sandvik Mining Ghana Ltd., reputed as a global leader in manufacturing and supplying technical solutions for rock drilling, cutting, and crushing in mining, has organized a career fair at the Pakyi No. 1 DA Junior High School, in the Ashanti Region.

The fair was to lay the foundation for the company to move its operations from Obuasi to the Pakyi Community.

The Human Resource and Administrative Manager of Sandvik, West Africa, Mr. Nuhu Salifu, said the career fair was simply to build friendship with the community, as well as help the pupils to know what prospects “there are for them in an organisation like ours.”

He said the fair also formed part of the company’s generous Corporate Social Responsibility activities.

According to him, Sandvik Mining has, since 2005, spent a total of US$752,000 on its corporate social responsibility within its West African operational area.

“Sandvik Mining, within the period in question, spent $592,000 on the training of technicians at the University of Mines and Technology to help provide the relevant skills for the mining industry and contributed $62,000 to rehabilitate part of the dormitory block of the Tarkwa Midwifery Training School, through the Goldfields Ghana Sustainable Development Fund.”

Mr. Salifu said Sandvik clearly recognised the need to co-exist peacefully with its host communities and had, therefore, put at the forefront of its operations, the needs of the communities where it operates and the importance of conducting their operations in environmentally sustainable way.

“We understand very well that our corporate behaviour will invariably drive the mood within the environment we operate. It is our consciousness of this fact that we have taken the initiative, with your kind collaboration, to initiate this process of engagement with our neighbours, so that this mood begins and remains positive,” he added.

“Wherever we have found ourselves, we have upheld high ethical standards and proven to be responsible. Our core values of Fairplay, team spirit and open mind dictate this.

For us it is not a favour we are doing you; it is right so to do,” he stressed.

Speaker after speaker asked the audience to take their studies seriously, since the effort they put today would determine what kind of future they would have. Nana Gyamfi Mensah Bonsu I, Chief of Pakyi No 1, in a speech read on his behalf by his Akwamuhene, Nana Oppong Kyekyeku, appealed to the company to urgently assist the community expand both the primary and JHS classroom blocks to ease congestion, as well as ensure that good environmental practices are adopted to enhance environmental safety and sustainability in the community.