ORICA Ghana Limited, world largest provider of commercial explosives, innovation blasting systems and a contractor at the Newmont Ghana's Akyem Mine, has donated books to four public schools in the Newmont Akyem Mines catchment areas.

The beneficiary schools are; New Site-Yayaaso D/A Model, Mamanso D/A, Afosu Presbyterian and New Abirem D/A "B" Schools.

Presenting the books to the schools, Mr Solomon Nkrumah, Senior Site Supervisor, ORICA-Newmont Ghana's Akyem Mine said promoting education in their host communities had been their major priority.

He said the gesture formed part of the company's corporate social responsibilities in making sure that education was improved in communities across Newmont's catchment communities.

The company had adopted the use of a camera drone in monitoring blasting at the Newmont Akyem Mine that earned it an award within Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) in 2020 for observing Safety Health and Environment (SHE) through the use of the new technology.

Mr Nkrumah said with the adoption of the drone technology, human presence at the pit viewpoint to manually record a video of the blast fumes and miscommunication had been eliminated.

He added that the company was tasked to use part of the monetary component of the award to improve the living standards of the people in its catchment areas.

He therefore entreated the District Education Directorate to ensure the books were distributed fairly to the schools.

Madam Akosua Tiwaa Cloytey, the Deputy Director of Planning, Data Collection, Monitoring, Records and Research who received the books on behalf of the Directorate was grateful to ORICA Ghana Limited for the gesture and promised to use the books to promote literacy of students.

She appealed to the company to construct more schools in communities across the district to improve quality teaching and learning.