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Leading cement manufacturer, Ghacem Limited, has set February 17th this year as the deadline for submission of proposals by interested participants in the ongoing Quarry Life Award (QLA) competition. Mr. Joseph Mensah, the Environmental Health Safety and Quality Manager of Ghacem who is also the National Coordinator of the competition, announced this on Friday 4th February 2012 as the company climaxed its maiden �Quarry Open Day� with a tour of the Akosombo - Agyina and Yongwa quarry concessions. About 60 participants of the competition drawn from some of the country�s Universities and research institutions joined the tour, in addition to other company officials such as Mr. Jens Wold, Quarry Manager Ghacem; Max Metzger, an Environmental Engineer (Biologist) from Germany on a rehabilitation assignment from HeidelbergCement Group; and Mr. Benny Fiifi Ashun, the Strategy and Corporate Affairs Officer of Ghacem who is also in charge of communications for the competition. Mr. Mensah noted that the tour will enable the participants to have first-hand information of what to expect in the competition. The QLA competition is a novelty educational programme initiated by HeidelbergCement Group, owners of GHACEM Limited, to encourage students and researchers to come out with sustainable ways of managing the environmental impact of its mining activities. Mr. Mensah said GHACEM is overwhelmed by the teeming number of interested participants who turned up for the Quarry Open Day �which has been organised to expose the participants to our quarry.� He expressed gratitude to all who showed up for the trip. He also noted that as part of the competition, participants will be required to come up with proposals about �how best biodiversity can be managed, as well as sustainable ways to rehabilitate our quarries during and after mining. �We also encourage the participants to look around the quarries for any additions and discoveries they can make to improve the natural habitat after the mining activities and other biodiversity issues,� he said, as he entreated the participants to submit their proposals by the February 17, 2012 deadline. Mr. Benny Fiifi Ashun, head of communications for the competition, explained that following the submission of the proposals, a four-man jury will evaluate them and select the best five contestants who will compete from March till September stressing that the international jury will review all five nationally chosen proposals and independently from the national jury selection will choose any of the five proposals; adding that a project could still win internationally whereas it did not win nationally. The big prize at stake for the ultimate winners, he reminded, was 10,000 euro, 20,000 euro or 30,000 euro, Institutions that have so far been identified to participate include the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Kumasi and Sunyani campus; the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana at Fumesua; University of Ghana (UG); Tropenbos International (an NGO); University of Cape Coast (UCC); and the University for Development Studies (UDS), Max Metzger, an Environmental Engineer (Biologist) took the participants through the concession, explaining the biodiversity of the quarry-sites and how Ghacem intends to reclaim the land after its mining activities. This was after the quarry Manager of Ghacem Mr. Jens Wold took them through how mining activities are done by Ghacem�s contractors and the adherence to best-practices as far as the environment and the impact that the mining has on the inhabitants of the nearby settlements to the quarry site are concerned.