The concerns expressed by the mining community about the future of the industry in an “environmental era” reflect the extent to which issues pertaining to the environment have moved closer to the top of the national and global agendas.
At Monday’s General Meeting of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) Acting Commissioner of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) William Woolford put the industry on notice that the new regulations scheduled to come on stream soon will require the mining industry to be far more mindful of the importance of a greater awareness of the concerns of the host communities and the environment as a whole.
The track record of some sections of the mining community as far as responsible environmental practices are concerned suggests that changes in attitudes as much as in operational procedures will be required if they are to measure up to the new standards that the GGMC now require. The evidence of a few months ago when miners in Region Eight actually dug up a road and destroyed water pipes in search of gold suggests that some businessmen who are involved in the mining industry care only about the profits to be made from the industry and little about the serious long-term damage that irresponsible mining can leave behind.
It probably came as a surprise to many people that the Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting held in Georgetown in October included on its agenda the issue of climate change. The point is, however, that it has become difficult if not impossible to separate issues of economy and finance from issues of the environment since both, in their respective critical ways, are central to the quality of life. Quite simply, it would be foolhardy to consider one in isolation from the other.
Here in Guyana where considerations of the environment have traditionally been fairly low on the agenda of national concerns, we are now required to pay a great deal more attention to those issues. The problem is, of course, that since there is no local track record of overwhelming sensitivity to environmental issues either at the level of the state or at the level of the populace as a whole, the challenge of making the kinds of adjustments that are necessary to meet contemporary environmental challenges are considerable.
For the miners, for example, that challenge will require, among other things, a greater awareness of the need for co-existence with their host communities. These changes, of course, have attitudinal as well as operational implications.
One of the issues that arise in any new mining dispensation is the issue of the ability of the government to implement mechanisms that would ensure effective policing of those regulations. The government is manifestly incapable of doing so and therefore, in the final analysis, it will be down to the miners to regulate themselves.
This is where both the GGMC and the GGDMA have important roles to play. The former must embark, first, on a sustained public education programme for the mining industry that heightens the industry’s awareness of the importance of responsible mining practices. In this regard the miners must be made aware of both the short and long-term damage that can result from irresponsible mining and the impact that their activities can, in many cases, have on the quality of life of some Amerindian communities, But since public education is – unfortunately – unlikely to have an impact on some gold seekers, the GGMC must move to strengthen its hand in terms of being able to bring legal action against transgressors with reasonable assurance that there will be severe penalties for transgressions.
For its part the GGDMA must commit itself to ensuring that miners adhere to responsible mining practices, or else, have the courage to advocate their removal from the industry. Nothing less than that will be enough.
