Following recent investigations of continuous pollution of the Essequibo River by some operators who discharge tailings waste into the waterway, more stringent actions against miners guilty of such breaches will be taken by the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC).
Operators who continue with “grievous infringement” will also face the brunt of the law, Minister of Transport and Hydraulics Robeson Benn, who is presently holding the office of Public Works and Communications in the absence of Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, who is out of the country, said, according to a release from the Government Information Agency (GINA).
“The GGMC, both the mines officers and environmental officers and technicians have to go out into the districts, that is the watercourses of the Essequibo, Cuyuni, Mazuruni, the Potaro, Mora and Siparuni and take action to prevent siltation of the creeks and rivers”, GINA quoted Benn as stating.
The release said that the campaign against illegal mining will also take into consideration the removal of shops which have moved from the location allocated to them and which investigations have found “are a haven for miners who operate unlawfully”.
The GGMC recently seized equipment from three unauthorized operations in Mahdia, Region Eight, illegal operations were discovered on the road, south of Mahdia, and law enforcement agencies apprehended miners who were found encroaching on Omai Gold Mines Limited’s property, the release noted.
It was also discovered that the law-breakers were those who have been granted plots of land at Quartz Hill but who were dissatisfied with the rewards from their operations, it added.
The Quartz Hill area is a 50-acre plot of land which was an abandoned property formerly owned by Omai and which was auctioned to small and medium-scale miners by the GGMC.
The GGMC has issued a strong warning to miners about unlawful operations such as emissions of fluids with high turbidity into the waterways or any other part of the environment.
