Within a year or two no mercury will be allowed in mining and it may no longer be lawfully available, according to the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC).
The statement was contained in a GGMC document, ‘Implications of the Low Carbon Development Strategy proposed for Guyana in response to climate change.’
Recently persons have raised the question of whether recent enforcement activities in the mining sector as well as the proposed introduction of new requirements have come as a result of the LCDS but this has been denied by the government and GGMC officials.
They have however said that miners would have to radically transform their mindset and operations.
President Bharrat Jagdeo had said at the launch of the LCDS, that the strategy would not see the cessation of economic activities in the forest. In July, he had sought to reassure miners that the LCDS will not see the cessation of mining activities and had said that no rule will be made to shut down the industry.
But several miners have expressed concerns that the introduction of a particular new regulation will see as much as 80% of small and medium-scale miners being forced out of business.
In a recent advertisement in this newspaper, former President of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) Patrick Pereira had restated his call for the exemption of 7% of Guyana total forested area, amounting to just over one million hectares for small and medium-scale gold and diamond miners to mine under present alluvial conditions.
This, he suggested could be in the wet alluvial old river bed flats “where the natural re-growth of trees after mining is fast and furious.” This exemption cannot in any way stop the LCDS from being a success and it will guarantee the economic survival of almost 100 000 persons while earning hundreds of millions for government organizations, he argued. According to the miner, it is interesting to note that since alluvial mining commenced, only a little over 1% of the forested area has so far been mined, while 50% of that area has seen complete forest regeneration.
In the advertisement, Pereira also raised several issues pertaining to the LCDS including its chances of success if the “rich” countries, particularly those who have high rates of pollution, do not sign on to the strategy.
Recently several miners had expressed concern about a proposed requirement that miners carry out exploration before they would be allowed to mine and said that at least 80% of miners would be forced out of business if this was enforced. Represent-atives of the GGMC have been telling miners that the LCDS means that they will have to develop the capability for exploration before being allowed to mine and the “hit and miss” approach to mining has to go.
Immediate past president of the GGDMA, Afro Alphonso had told Stabroek News that if this and other regulations are enforced, only the very large miners will remain in business because to comply with the regulations will be very costly. “Costs will go up so much it will not be economical,” he had said. He had also emphasized that he was supportive of the LCDS but economic activities would have to continue and if mining has to be done in a much more environmentally friendly manner, it should not happen overnight.
