Dear Editor,
It seems that the way to get prime mining land from the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) is to break the law, seek government intervention, further break the law and then you are granted prime land for mining in the long term. This is exactly what the Bone Yard miners at Omai did and they have been gainfully rewarded.
According to information provided by GGMC in a press release, the Bone Yard miners were initially found breaking the law by mining illegally on a closed area which was the old Omai mine site. They were then granted permission on ‘compassionate’ grounds to continue to mine in the same closed area but away from the old mine site. What this basically meant was that a way was found for continued illegal mining to occur. When it got out of hand GGMC used its heavy-handed tactics to remove them, and all of sudden the miners appeared as victims. Little thought has been given to the fact that from the inception these miners were breaking the law, continued to break the law and were then rewarded handsomely by GGMC by providing long-term prime land for them to continue their mining activities.
When such situations exist in the mining industry it creates a sense of total unfairness and contempt by other miners for the system. Why is it that the overwhelming majority of miners have to do mining by the book while a favoured few are granted freedom to subvert the law and in the process are handsomely rewarded?
GGMC has brought its reputation of impartiality into dispute with the handling of the Bone Yard miners. What happened to all of the rules that are supposed to govern mining in a balanced way? How can they bend the law for some miners and then give the heavy rod treatment to other miners found in a similar situation?
The icing of unfairness in this whole matter is that these miners who were illegally mining an area from which they made a fortune, were then granted further land for them to continue doing mining. From all indications this land has proven reserves and GGMC even spent $3 million on cutting the boundaries. Any prospective miner would tell you that the hardest thing in the industry at the moment is to get ownership of prime mining land. Yet these Bone Yard miners were handed prime parcels of land on a platter by GGMC after subverting the law. Can a system get any more unfair than this?
This land was available for auction on a number of occasions but due to the auction being postponed on every occasion that it was due (through no fault of the miners but entirely because of the administrative management), the land remained in reserve.
These blocks were of interest to many miners and would have long been sold if the auction had come off. Now GGMC has unilaterally given the land away to a group of miners with little consideration for other miners who may have been interested in the same area.
If this is the way to dispose of lands held in reserve, what is the purpose of auctions or lotteries? Probably GGMC should consider returning to the old system of making lands immediately available for relocation rather than keeping them in reserve.
By its actions with the Bone Yard miners, GGMC has sent a negative message to the mining industry. This message clearly states that the easiest way to get favourable lands is to break the law, seek political intervention and then be favourably rewarded for your misdeeds.
It would be interesting to note GGMC’s response if another group of miners commit a similar act as the Bone Yard miners (and certainly by GGMC’s actions with the Bone Yard miners, there is much incentive for other groups of miners to behave similarly). In the interest of fairness, similar consideration needs to be given to other such groups. Probably this is the way forward in the mining industry for small miners starved of land. Probably all of the small miners should picket GGMC demanding that land be released to them to do mining or they should occupy closed areas.
The whole Bone Yard saga has left a sour taste in the mouth of small miners. The Bone Yard miners are not to be blamed. They were able to manipulate a system in their favour and they reaped their benefits. All blame must go to GGMC and the government who twisted the rules for a favoured few while the hard rod measure is used on the other miners. The new Minister responsible for mining has his work cut out. If he is genuinely interested in maintaining the mining industry then he has to cut out the system whereby political intervention can favour a few.
He also needs to deal with the critical issue of making more prime mining lands available to the small miner by mandating GGMC to hold its annual auction, reducing the areas held as reserve by GGMC, reducing hoarding by a few big-name miners, mandating the large-scale exploration companies to reduce their acreage, etc. All of this can be achieved within the present Mining Regulations. All that is needed is for the rules to be properly implemented.
Yours faithfully,
J Evans
