Accra, Aug. 23, GNA - Professor Dominic Kweku Fobih, Minister of Lands, Mines and Forestry on Tuesday appealed to Russia to help to explore and mine the lesser-known species of minerals for the mutual benefit of the two countries.

He said since Ghana allowed foreign investors to repatriate their profits abroad, investments in such sectors would be of immense benefits for both countries.

He was speaking to the Russian Ambassador Dr Valery Orlov, who paid a courtesy call on him at his office to find out the areas of interest that the Ministry expected the Embassy to help.

Prof Fobih said in the past Russia established a gold refinery at Tarkwa, which became defunct, "but if such a refinery can be established again, we can derive more foreign exchange instead of exporting the gold in the raw form.

He said there was also minerals such as iron, bauxite and manganese besides gold, which geological evidence showed were in large quantity in the country and needed to be explored and mined.

Russia, he noted, has a long history in mining and "we would like to take advantage of this technology to improve the mining sector". The Minister said a lot of exploration and mining had gone on around the southern and western parts of the country and there were still prospects in the eastern and the northern parts of the country for other minerals.

Prof Fobih, however, reminded the Ambassador of the need to protect the forest in as much as mining prospects was enticing, saying "we need to protect our forest to check climate change and its effect on the world, since climate change can be curbed if virgin forest were maintained".

Prof. Fobih said the Ministry was working on reforestation projects throughout the country and needed the assistance of the Russian Embassy in the form of technical cooperation to be able to achieve more. He urged both countries to explore the ideas discussed further for cooperation adding that the Ministry would set up a technical committee to prepare a proposal, which would form the bases for further discussion.

Dr Orlov, who expressed satisfaction with the brief, said he would solicit for partners/investors who were interested in the areas discussed for collaboration.