Alphonso: Costs will go up so much it will not be economical
A requirement that miners carry out exploration before they would be allowed to mine is causing concern within the industry with some restating that at least 80% of miners would be “forced” out and also raising questions about timing in relation to the low carbon strategy.
Questions have been asked as to whether the exploration stipulation and the enforcement of other mining regulations have come about because of the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) that Guyana is pursuing.
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. “Moving our national economy onto a low-deforestation, low-carbon path does not mean stopping all economic activities in our forest”, he had said. “Mining and fores-try will continue but they will have to be done to standards that are compatible with our international obligation and our low-carbon development vision,” the Head of State added. Late last month, he had sought to reassure miners, in a meeting with them 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.
Nevertheless, the requirement that miners will have to carry out an exploration programme and obtain economic assay results before they are allowed to continue to mine and cut down trees, is causing disquiet within the sector. Commissioner of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commis-sion (GGMC), William Woolford would not clarify whether such a condition has been or is to be implemented. When approached by this newspaper on Wednesday he promised that he would respond in a written statement on Thursday but this was not done.
Executive Director at the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA), Edward Shields told Stabroek News that the association is not aware of such a rule in any existing mining regulations and has not been made aware if it is to be included in any proposed regulation. They have not been so advised, at this time, he added. He said that the issue will be discussed at a meeting this week, when the association will formulate a position on it.
Radically transform
However, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds -who holds the ministerial portfolio for mining, at the miners meeting, had acknowledged that the exercise is costly, but asserted that it needs to be done with or without the LCDS. At the launch of the LCDS, he had bluntly told miners that they would have to radically transform their mindset and their operations and in the future small and medium-scale mining will be much more formalized. Noting that miners are not currently meeting the existing standards in the industry, he had urged them to change attitudes and learn rapidly.
Additionally, representatives 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. The “hit and miss” approach to mining has got to go, Manager of the GGMC Mines division, Derek Babb had told miners in Mahdia late in June. He had said that the GGMC will not allow them to cut down trees when they aren’t sure that there was gold underneath it. “The alternative to proper exploration prior to mining is no mining”, he had said.
Miner Patrick Pereira at the miners’ meeting had sought to engage the President on the requirement, stating that 90% of miners would go out of mining, should it be implemented and as such this would have disastrous effects on the financial and social aspects of the small and medium-scale industry and beyond. As he spoke, he had been strongly supported by his fellow miners. Jagdeo had responded that he was painting a “doomsday scenario that is not grounded in any fact”.
But immediate past president of the GGDMA, Afro Alphonso told Stabroek News last week 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 asserted. According to him, 80% of miners would be “forced” out of mining. Alphonso said that the industry has accepted that standards have to be raised.
Compulsory
He 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.
Other miners at the 27th Annual General Meeting of the GGDMA last month had said that while the LCDS is a good initiative, its implementation will leave many small miners in the cold. They had cited exploration as a major issue as this will require significant investment in machi-nery which will amount to millions of dollars.
Meantime, Pereira, in a letter to this newspaper, had said that 90% of the gold sold to the Guyana Gold Board last year was produced on medium scale mining permits and these operations will be affected if the proposed condition is made law. Last year gold exports brought in US$203.7 million to the country while diamond exports brought in US$31.2 million.
A GGMC document- ‘Implications of the LCDS proposed for Guyana in response to climate change for the small and medium scale gold and diamond mining sector’, obtained by this newspaper, states that “it is expected that it will be compulsory for all medium scale operators, that is, mechanized operations, typically using excavators and/or dredges that evacuate or process between 200 – 1000 cubic metres of materials per day, to conduct exploration before they are allowed to start mining”. It went on to say that the definition of medium scale mining from the environmental regulations will cover most operations so that medium scale mining can be done on a small scale claim.
Pereira -a committee member of the GGDMA, had argued that the majority of miners will find it difficult and probably not feasible to purchase the special drill, finance the exploration cost, pay their installments to banks and machinery financing firms, and take care of their families during the shut-down period when no money is coming to them from gold production and sales. He had advocated that some land be set aside where mining can be done without the need for exploration first.
But environmentalists have long advocated a shift in mining methods here and it has been acknowledged that miners have not been complying with the required standards. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) had been working with miners on alternative methods of processing while a Canadian International Deve-lopment Agency-funded programme is working with miners on different mining methods.
Rickford Vieira, the Regional Goldmining Pollu-tion Abatement Coordinator at the Guyana Office of the WWF had told this newspaper in an interview several weeks ago that miners have to start doing exploration and they know this. “They know that the system will evolve into something more competitive, more environmentally-accepted. It has to be like any other business where feasibility studies are done,” he had said.
Shields in an interview with this newspaper in June had said that miners must do more drilling. “In our country, hopefully we are working towards a situation where the industry is trying to move away from this hit and miss type of prospecting,” he had said. In the interview, he had stated that the GGMC can assist in this regard suggesting that geologists can prospect, report the findings and the GGMC can put out a bulletin, identifying where minerals are located and similar data. He observed that once mining becomes organised in the sense that persons are not mining until they have some idea of what they can get, then they would have no problem investing money in equipment.
Woolford, at the miners meeting, had pointed out that exploration is acknowledged to be important before mining commences while the Prime Minister had said that the future would see the development of specialized groups to do prospecting. President Jagdeo has expressed the view that mining will continue but will be overtaken by information and communication technology. He had said that as the LCDS moves forward, there will be a need to update laws.
Meantime, Alphonso asserted that the GGMC should do more and play a meaningful role in educating miners. He declared that 90% of miners are ignorant of the environmental requirements. Using the analogy of a person applying for a driver’s licence, he said that the applicant has to prove that he can drive. In the case of miners, before someone is granted a licence, he said, they should be given a package that will outline what is required so that they can make a decision as to whether it is feasible for them. They should know their obligations before they get into the business, he emphasized.
