The studies is to assess the viability of how the by-product, feldspar, can be applied in other industries, especially the ceramics industry.

The Vice Chancellor, Profes­sor Richard Kwasi Amankwah who announced this at the 15th ccongregation of the university at Tarkwa over the weekend, stated that by this latest development, the university was taking a major steps to maintain its position among forward looking universities by deepening research and advancing interactions with ggovernment, in­dustry and the community, through partnerships.

The VC mentioned that UMaT would continue to support respon­sible mining and that it observed the Sustainable Small-scale Mining Awareness Day on June 2, this year, by engaging the Akoon Communi­ty Mine to create awareness among the people about the need to adopt sustainable and environmental­ly-friendly methods in artisanal and small-scale mining.

Prof. Amankwah noted that for many years mining communities had complained about employment in the industry while companies also explained that the situation was due to the absence of qualified personnel in the communities.

To promote skills development in mineral-rich communities, he said UMaT had teamed-up with the Bibiani Community to opera­tionalise the Bibiani Community School.

The school was to build the capacity and prepare community members to take up professional jobs in the mining and minerals in­dustry, he explained, saying “more of such community schools will be established in other mineral-rich communities.”

UMaT, he said had organised its annual innovation and career fair for junior and senior high school students in Tarkwa to visit their laboratories and interact with lecturers adding “this is to promote innovation among students.”

As part of the University’s Cor­porate Social Responsibility, UMaT would donate two of the moto­rised wheel chairs developed by Team Tech winners to the Tarkwa Municipal Hospital.

He expressed gratitude to the government for supporting the university, through the Minerals Development Fund (MDF), to establish the Jewellery Centre with the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) allocating $2.0 million for the project.

Prof. Amankwah also thanked the Ghana Chamber of Mines for the financial supports through its Tertiary Education Fund (GCM-TEF), which for five years, gave scholarships to brilliant but needy students, research grants for lectur­ers and post-graduate students, and also built a ffaculty block at UMaT.

To the graduands, he said “as you transition to the next stages of your lives, please do well to project the values of knowledge, truth and excellence. Please identify some of the many problems in our society and solve at least one significant problem for which reason society will remember you.”

At the ceremony, 13 graduands were awarded Doctor of Philos­ophy degrees out of 80 who re­ceived postgraduate degrees, while 582 were also awarded Bachelor of Science degrees in their respective engineering programmes.

A total of 105 students, repre­senting 18 per cent of the grad­uating class, obtained First Class Honours.

Mr Abdul-Rahman Ishaak, from the Department of Mining Engi­neering, with a Cumulative Weight Average (CWA) of 88.79, emerged the Vice Chancellor’s overall best graduating student award and received a certificate, a cash prize of GH¢2,000 and a Laptop, sponsored by the UMaT Alumni Association.