Some urban businessmen pushing for a piece of the pie – Shields
Continually rising gold prices coupled with a highly successful 2009 for the industry appears to have triggered a fresh wave of investment interest in the sector by coastal businessmen who have traditionally paid little if any attention to the gold-mining industry; and according to Executive Secretary of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) Edward Shields Guyana’s latest ‘gold rush’ could add to the already existing challenges facing the industry.
“It would surprise you to know how many traditionally urban businesses are now indicating an interest in investing in the mining sector. The problem is that these potential new players in the industry are not interested in exploration. They want to have access to those areas where there are proven reserves and that could have implications for those miners already operating in the sector,” Shields said.
And according to the GGDMA official this fresh wave of business interest in the gold-mining sector has come at a time when the industry is facing additional challenges associated with the future of the mining sector in an increasingly regulated operating environment.
GGDMA members met recently to prepare and submit recommendations to President Bharrat Jagdeo for the management of the sector, arising out of the setting up by government in January this year of a Special Land Use Committee (SLUCT) to charter a course for the industry. Shields said that one of the roles of the committee was to enable miners to make recommendations to the President for the operation of the sector within the context of the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS). However, according to Shields, after seventeen meetings those recommendations are still to be “put on paper.”
Delays in framing the recommendations have reportedly resulted from differences between the miners’ representatives on the SLUCT and state officials on the committee. Shields said that the GGDMA had been told by the President that he would
entertain independent proposals from the miners if those submitted to him by the SLUCT did not meet with their concurrence. This newspaper has been reliably informed that some of the recommendations discussed by the miners for the future of the industry are unlikely to find favour with government.
Gold miners clashed with the authorities earlier this year over a proposed new regulation which government said was designed to reduce deforestation under the LCDS and the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degra-dation (REDD+) programme. The new regulations which would require miners to give notice six months in advance and to secure permission from the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) for the felling of trees in new concessions sparked a major protest in the mining sector earlier this year.
Meanwhile, another mining source has told this newspaper that miners have been expressing concern over what they regard as an attempt to use the state-appointed SLUCT to miniaturize the role of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission. “The miners are concerned that over time the mandate of the Land Use Committee has been broadened to embrace a wider range of mining issues,” the source said. Shields confirmed that the SLUCT was now addressing mining matters that had to do with other things apart from land use.
Last year, gold mining exports realized US$281.7m or 36.7% of total exports. Rising world market prices have resulted in increases in both the volume and value of gold though the mining sector continues to depend heavily on the importation of fuel and machinery.
