UNIVERSITY INSTITUTES INTERNATIONAL MINING CONFERENCE (PAGE 42, AUGUST 19, 2010)

THE University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) in the Western Region has instituted a Biennial International Mining and Mineral Conference.
The conference would serve as a platform for academics and professionals in the mining, petroleum and allied industries to share their views and experiences on how to address challenges facing the industries.
 The first of the biennial conferences has ended at the university at Tarkwa during which participants from Ghana, South Africa, Oman Republic, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the United States of America presented 86 papers.
Topics treated at the conference included innovation in mining technology and equipment selection, advances in mineral extraction, geomatic and geological developments, salt and petroleum production, environmental issues and artisanal small-scale mining, sustainable development and corporate social responsibility, mechanical and electrical applications and general aspects of mining.
The three-day conference, attended by 171 participants was on the theme: “Innovations in mining and mineral processing: Expanding the frontiers of mining technology”.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology in Akure, Nigeria, Professor Adebisi M. Balogun, emphasised that the laws governing the operations of oil prospecting companies should be well articulated without loopholes.
He said sharing of oil wealth among stakeholders was a major problem that resulted in lopsidedness in the distribution of oil wealth in Nigeria.
Professor Balogun stated that the system in which the government alone took the decision on utilising the windfall in any manner it deemed appropriate without recourse to other stakeholders was inappropriate and needed to be revised.
Speaking on the topic: “Harnessing petroleum resources to develop the agricultural sector: The Nigerian experience,” he explained that agriculture was still a dominant sector of the Nigerian economy and that from the early 1950s to the early 1970s, the sector was a source of employment to about 80 per cent of the labour force.
Professor Balogun said starting from the early 1970s when Nigeria began to export crude oil, the importance of agriculture began to wane.
He said attention virtually shifted to the oil sector which increasingly accounted for the bulk of foreign exchange earnings.
“As a result of inflow of ‘petro-dollars’, Nigeria increasingly relied on importation of food and agricultural raw materials instead of investing in and strengthening the agricultural sector,” he added.
“Despite the rich endowment of extensive arable land, a large body of surface and underground water, rich soil nutrient profile, a large number of institutions offering courses in agriculture, an intimidating pool of well-trained experts in all specialities of agriculture and a large population of about 150 million, Nigeria is still miles away from being food sufficient,” Professor Balogun lamented.
Professor Balogun said the country expended over US$3 billion annually in the importation of some food staples to supplement local supply.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Dr Joyce R. Aryee, said the mining companies must constantly evolve and adapt to the changing needs and expectations of the society or risk losing their social licence to operate.
She said the companies were expected to be responsible stewards of community resources.
Dr Aryee stated that corporate social responsibility was not an option but a necessity that enabled the companies to plough back some of their earnings to help improve the living conditions of the people.
She mentioned some of the key targets of corporate social responsibilities as economic empowerment, infrastructural development, environment, education and training, and health and safety.
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Mines and Technology, Professor Daniel Mireku-Gyimah, said the university was motivated to achieve its vision since the country was endowed with abundant mineral resources which could be exploited for national development.
He said so far, the country had been exploiting mainly gold, diamond, bauxite and manganese and, to some limited extent, salt and gravel.
“But we also have iron, casseterite, asbestos, limestone, marble, andalusite, barite, mica, talc, silica, garnet, feldspar, sandstone, beryl, columbite, lithium, monazite, copper and kaolin and we have oil and gas, all of which are yet to be exploited,” Prof. Mireku-Gyimah said.
The major challenge, he said, was how to exploit those mineral resources in an environmentally friendly manner so that we could prevent or minimise environmental damage and maximise the socio-economic benefits of mining.