Tarkwa (W/R), April 04, GNA-The University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), Tarkwa in the Western Region has launched its 70th Institutional Anniversary Celebration under the theme: “70 Years of Mining Education, Technology and Innovation”.
Dr Stephen Yirenkyi, Chairman of Council, who performed the launch in Tarkwa, assisted in unveiling the anniversary cloth.
He stated that UMaT, which had become a major stakeholder in the mining and allied engineering fields, had given birth to numerous outstanding professionals in the mining industry in Ghana and even beyond the borders of the country.
He emphasized that the good leadership of its Chief Executive Officers, hard work of the staff and determination of students and the alumni have undeniably contributed to this great feat.
Dr Yirenkyi said it was heartwarming to note that the University had been in the media in recent times for various good reasons which attest to the fact that the contributions of UMaT to the development of Ghana cannot be overemphasised dding “we hope that more significant and outstanding contributions would be made in the years ahead to give us more reasons to celebrate the University”.
The Chairman of Council said he was impressed with the decision of management to celebrate the 70th anniversary of this noble institution, the Centre for mining education in the Sub-Saharan Africa.
He thanked all those who attended the ceremony and said “we are part of a great history today as we begin a year long journey to celebrate our successes and gains together as members of the University Community”.
“UMaT started in 1952 as a technical institute but over the years it has grown from just a technical institute to the school of Mines which was a faculty at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and then the Western College of KUNST till now it is a full University. So, we are not yet 70 years as a university but our story as an institution, we are 70 years old” Professor Richard Amankwah, The Vice Chancellor of UMaT, explained to the Ghana News Agency.
He said, “as an academic institution, ours was to generate products which were our graduates and if you walk across all mining institutions in West African and worldwide you would see our products performing marvelously in all the mining space across the world that is our success story.”
According to him, “the world is changing very fast and if you go to the mining industry you talk about the Mine of the future, robots do the difficult things like drilling, mining underground and those things so it’s not just enough training a mining engineer you need many things to make the professional very useful in the industry today.
For instance, with artificial intelligence, we need a little bit of robotics and computer programming to get everything set and that is what we are doing”.
Prof. Amankwah mentioned that currently, the University had people on campus who were converting palm kennel shells to brake pads, waste plastics into diesel oil, micros, bacteria, and fungal in mineral extraction and so many others, adding the University was looking at commercialization of its research so that together students and staff could have more impact in their communities.
Touching on the University’s milestone for the next 10 years, the Vice Chancellor said “I want to see our robotics engineers helping with government agenda in terms of one district one factory becoming more relevant to our community, small scale mining flourishing and bringing mining education to the door steps of all Ghanaians.
Prof. Amankwah earlier led a float through the principal streets of Tarkwa to create awareness on the anniversary.
Dr Peter Sampson, National Vice President, Alumina Association-UMAT said the University has organized a lot of training programmes for small scale miners and this has reduced the menace of illegal mining activities in the country.
“This is the best public funded University and looking at the contribution to the mining industry if more investment is done it would help the University to grow further”, he indicated.
Source: Ghana News Agency