The Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) has published notices in the local media announcing an impending lottery for special mining permit parcels in the gold-bearing regions of Guyana.
The lottery, which will be held next Tuesday, affords interested persons the opportunity to secure permits for 60 parcels at locations at Lethem, Mahdia, Bartica, Pork Kaituma and Mabaruma.
Stabroek Business has learnt that publication of the notice will, for the first time since November 2009, allow small investors in the mining industry to access mining claims through lottery.
Under the rules of the lottery, participants must own at least one significant piece of mining equipment, like a dredge or an excavator. Additionally, miners who currently own more than five claims or any medium or large-scale mining property will not be allowed to enter the lottery.
However, a mining industry source has told this newspaper that even as the publication of the notice appears to signal that more room is being created for small-scale gold-mining operations, more than 1,000 current small miners fear loss of claims they are currently mining on account of the imposition of an illegal and arbitrary procedure by the GGMC. The source explained that applications by Amerindians to extend existing claims in areas where they currently live and mine have resulted in the GGMC moving to have coastal small miners relinquish long-held claims in those areas where the Amerindians are seeking extensions. The source named Issano, where, reportedly, up to 1,000 people are threatened with loss of claims to lands which they are currently mining, but which are part of the lands included in the areas into which the Amerindian miners are seeking extensions. “Actually, the process has already started. It appears that the GGMC has been instructed not to approve any new claims in those areas affected by the applications by Amerindian miners for extensions and also not to accept payment from miners seeking to continue to work those claims,” the source said.
The source told Stabroek Business the actions by the GGMC continue even in the face of advice it has received from the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs to the effect that it is inappropriate to move against existing claim holders in circumstances where the applications for claim extensions by Amerindian miners are yet to be approved.
The GGMC, according to the source, is currently in possession of a list of miners who are likely to have to surrender their claims under what he described as “an unlawful arrangement”.
Asked to comment on the claim that a large number of small miners are affected by this development and that measures which the GGMC is pursuing have already started, Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) Consultant Edward Shields told Stabroek Business that this had already been raised publicly by several miners and he had been informed that some of the already affected miners may have moved to the courts to have the procedure stopped. “As far as I have been told the GGMC is pursuing this course of action without providing any explanation,” Shields said. Another miner told this newspaper that fear of official reprisals was likely to prevent some miners from pursuing court action.
According to Shields, while it was no secret that the industry’s small miners were facing “various pressures and challenges”, the announcement of next week’s lottery after a hiatus of more than two years suggests that a modest amount of room is being created for small miners, though the miners feel the lottery initiative might be all but cancelled out by much larger claim losses “resulting from the actions which the GGMC is purportedly taking.”
Another notice published in the media by the GGMC earlier this week indicated that the commission will also be reserving “closed areas” to accommodate groups interested in mining near their communities. Applicants for these “community mining” operations in closed areas must provide the names and proof of addresses of groups making the application “and a brief description of how the funds generated will be managed to support the community development.”
The clutch of mining-related public notices advertised in the media by the GGMC earlier this week include invitations for the submission of proposals for exploration of “rare earth elements in the interior regions and applications for expressions of interest in sand mining in the Rupununi Mining District”. Shields said the publication of the notices coupled with the recent announcement of a multi-million dollar state investment in an interior administrative facility for the mining sector was indicative of the fact that the mining sector, particularly the gold-mining sector, could no longer be either marginalized or ignored since it now occupied a central position in the development of the interior regions of Guyana and the building of the Guyana economy as a whole.
