Australian High Commissioner Calls On Lands Ministry
The Australian High Commissioner designate, Her Excellency Berenice Owen-Jones has on Tuesday, 23rd August, 2022 called on the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to among others discuss Ghana’s participation in the upcoming African Down Under Mining Conference (ADU) scheduled to take place in Perth, Western Australia from 29th August to 3rd September 2022.
Receiving the High Commissioner on behalf of the Sector Minister, the Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources responsible for Mines, Hon. George told Duker H.E Owen-Jones about Ghana’s agenda to ensure value addition in the mining sector, explaining that “we are no longer in the mine and ship agenda considering how that has cost us over the years”
He commended Australian mining companies operating in Ghana for their role in helping shape the socio-economic development agenda of the country.
Touching on the ADU Conference, the Deputy Mines Minister said it is the priority of the Ministry and the Sector Minister to be part of this all important conference. “Visiting Australia for this conference is a priority to the Ministry and the Sector Minister Hon. Samuel A. Jinapor is also looking forward to it”
Hon. Duker was also quick to add that the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipality together with the University of Mines Tarkwa, (UMaT) have put in place some measures to partner a Gold mining town in Australia for what he described as a “Sister-City” initiative and hoped that with the effort of H.E Owen-Jones, this agenda will be realised.
The High Commissioner designate, H.E Berenice Owen-Jones expressed her joy and anticipation to host Ghana in Australia during the conference saying that they plan on putting Ghana on the spotlight.
She explained that similar to the Mining Indaba Conference, the African Down Under Conference is going to afford participating countries the opportunity to meet giants in the Mining industry to discuss, jaw-jaw and share ideas on making the industry a robust one in their respective ones.
The High Commissioner Designate who is barely six months in Ghana, hopes to lead her country to strengthen bilateral ties with Ghana, expecially in the area of Mining and further disclosed the visit of the Australian Foreign Affairs Minister to Ghana who she said will be attending the West African Mining security conference scheduled for 28-29th September in Accra.
She also assured the Deputy Minister that she will indeed put in the effort to make the Twin-City initiative work for the benefit of both communities and countries at large. “I will put in my best to make sure this happens” she concluded.