Dear Editor,
THE GGDMA calls on President Donald Ramotar and his Government to grant to the thousands of Gold and Diamond Miners, in the Small and Medium Scale Alluvial Gold and Diamond Mining Industry, an ACCUMULATED TOTAL acreage “EXEMPTION” of a small 1.6 Million acres, (4% of 40 Million Acres of state forest) to allow our Miners to continue to do Direct Mining, as they have been doing.
This Exemption the miners seek, means that the area to be mined, will not be subjected to any rules or conditions of the Norway or any such deal, and the Mined yearly accumulated area being so small, it could in no way have any negative effect on the Low Carbon Development Strategy Program (LCDS), the Norway or any other deal.
First of all, we wish TO EXPLAIN that we are NOT SEEKING a particular DEMARCATED area of 1.6 Million acres, we are seeking a GRAND TOTAL of 1.6 Million ACCUMULATED acres, TO BE ALLUVIAL MINED over the entire Forested area of 40 Million Acres, wherever there are Minerals, to be mined over many years.
To explain it further, if in 2012, the acres mined all over the entire Forest by all our alluvial Miners, are added up to 12,800 acres, then we subtract that 12,800 acres from 1.6 Million Acres, and we are left to mine a further 1,587,200 acres, and after every year’s mined total accumulated acreage is subtracted from the total left, then when it reaches 0 acres, after the accumulated 1.6 Million acres have been mined out, then alluvial mining could close down.
It is very important to note, and this has been substantiated by foreign experts that over 95% of the mined area, would have re grown a Forest, with a complete Canopy cover.
YEARLY MINED AREA IS VERY SMALL – The mined alluvial area of 10,000 acres yearly, is a minute 0.025% of the entire Forest area of Guyana, while if it is 20,000 acres, which we dispute it is, it is still small at 0.050 % of our entire forested area of 40 Million Acres.
If we mine 20,000 acres yearly (0.050 %), it will take 20 Years to mine 0.4 Million Acres or 1% and 80 Years to mine 1.6 Million Acres or 4%, and that is at 20,000 acres yearly, and not at 10,000 acres yearly.
EXEMPTION AREA WILL PRODUCE—, If the Local Small & Medium Scale Gold & Diamond Mining Industry is not to be miniaturized, this exempted accumulated area would enable the sector to continue Mining as it has been doing for over a century, but with better mining practices, eventually reaching a production of ONE MILLION OUNCES OF GOLD YEARLY worth US1.6 BILLION DOLLARS, IN Foreign Currency earnings, well over the present production of 360 Thousand Ounces of Gold yearly, at US 1,600.00 an ounce, worth over 580 Million US Dollars in Foreign Exchange earnings, more than Sugar and Rice and other export commodities put together, while directly employing thousands of people, and financially benefiting over a hundred thousand persons, including those in all the Communities in the Interior, as well as those servicing this small and Medium scale Gold and Diamond Mining Industry.
Industries and Services such as Air Transportation, Land Transportation, River Transportation, Inland and Interior Communications.
Heavy Duty Equipment Supplies MACORP, T. Geddes Grant, General Equipment
Parts and Supplies JOHIL, Crown Mining, JAPARTS,
Fabrication and Electrical Workshops.
Food Suppliers Major stores, Supermarkets, Community Markets, Travel Vendors,
Hinterland Communities Facilities Interior Airstrips, Roads, Bridges, Crossings.
Hinterland Towns and Communities such as Linden, Bartica, Mahdia, Port Kaituma, Imbaimadai, Kamarang, Kurupung, Isaano, Pomeroon, Cuyuni, Lethem.
THE PROPOSAL AND ITS CONDITIONS
This 1.6 Million acres (4%) proposal would enable the sector to continue mining, as it has been doing for over a century, but with more caring for those living around the Mining areas, and will include the following conditions listed below, to mine while the exempted accumulated area has not been exhausted or minded out.
A) No Compulsory Exploration before Mining
B) No 6 Months Notice before Mining.
C) No involvement of the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC), in giving permission to the Miner to mine, or having anything to do with the Mining Laws, or Mining Regulations.
D) Any land Rehabilitation charges and deposits to GGMC, must not be greater than G$100,000.00 for any worked Prospecting or Mining Permit area.
E) There must be no banning of the use of Mercury, especially during the exempted period, as long as there is no Practical, no safer and no economic alternative method to replace Mercury.
F) There must be no Draconian Mining Regulations, which are designed to cause a gradual economic death of all the Alluvial Miners, taking its gradual toll on each miner according to his/her Financial Strength.
THE GUYANA GOLD AND DIAMOND MINERS ASSOCIATION (GGDMA) IS REQUESTING THE SETTING ASIDE OF AN ACCUMULATED FOUR PERCENT (4%) OF STATE FOREST FOR THE SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE MINERS.
G) There must be no “Capping” of how many claims or Permits a Miner could hold.
Guyana’s alluvial gold and diamond mining industry will be Miniaturized and eventually closed down” in the not too distant future” UNLESS the miners and the industry is GRANTED by Government, AN ACCUMULATED TOTAL ACREAGE EXEMPTION OF A SMALL 1.6 MILLION ACRES, (4% of 40 Million Acres),
The miniaturizing of Guyana’s Small and Medium Scale Alluvial Mining Industry using the Environment as the major weapon, will bring the Economic Mining Death to the Small and Medium Scale Miners, causing massive escalation in poverty, crime and prostitution in all aspects and areas in our society, including many thousands who live in Villages and Settlements in the interior, and are now experiencing a better standard of living, especially the thousands of Amerindians who make up the Mining workforce.
ONLY THIS EXEMPTION WILL SAVE THE ALLUVIAL MINING INDUSTRY, FROM ITS PERCEIVED DEMISE.
ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR OF THE UNHINDERED CONTINUATION OF ALLUVIAL GOLD & DIAMOND MINING, THE POSITIVES & TEMPORARY NEGATIVES.
THE POSITIVES OF ALLUVIAL MINING
1 Employment—Employs directly over fifty thousand persons and indirectly benefits close to a Hundred and Fifty thousand persons.
2 Small area mined—The area over which alluvial mining takes place is very small, and is believed to be between a YEARLY TOTAL of 10,000 acres equivalent to 0.025% of 40 Million acres and 20,000 acres a Year, equivalent to 0.050% of 40 Million acres, although the latter total (20,000 acres) is disputed by the GGMC and the GGDMA
3 Production & Foreign Currency earnings—The said small area mined 1n 2011, produced over 360,000 ounces of Gold, valued at 580 Million US Dollars in Foreign Currency earnings. Production Target for Year 2012 is 400,000 ounces valued over 640 Million US Dollars in Foreign Exchange earnings.
An area of 25,000 acres or 0.0625 % of 40 Million acres, has the future capability of producing over One Million ounces of Gold yearly, valued at 1.6 Billion US Dollars in Foreign Currency earnings.
4 Growth of Forest after Mining— There is a complete forest canopy cover, between Two (2) and Three (3) years after an area is mined. This has been substantiated by foreign experts on the said subject. All those anti mining individuals or groups, who say that Mining is DESTROYING THE ENVIRONMENT, are unable to explain or describe what they mean by destroying the Environment, as they refuse to show us, three years after mining an area, what they are talking about.
THE REAL ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION, IS ABOUT POVERTY, THE POVERTY OF PEOPLE.–The GGDMA would also like to remind Our President of Guyana, all the Government people, the opposition, the MEDIA, the foreign diplomatic missions, and all the Anti Mining people, that ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION, is not about trees of the forest, as a lot of countries do not even have a Forest, but the REAL TRUE ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION, is about POVERTY, THE POVERTY OF PEOPLE.
THE TEMPORARY NEGATIVES OF ALLUVIAL MINING
Firstly Water–, THE GGDMA IS TOTALLY AGAINST miners allowing dirty water to travel downriver, especially where people live, even though the water runs clear again, as soon as mining stops in that area,
Secondly, Filled In Pits– the miners need to mine in a way that a high percentage of their mined pits are reasonably filled in. This is necessary to allow the automatic regeneration of forest growth over almost the entire mined area. The GGDMA continues to argue that the GGMC should set aside one percent (1%) of their Royalty revenue, which at Five percent (5%) is one of the highest Royalty charges in the entire Mining world.
This 1% of 360,000 ounces and rising yearly, which is equal to 3,600 ounces at US 1, 500.00 dollars an ounce is equivalent to 5.4 Million US dollars or 1.1 Billion Guyana dollars, will be able to fill in, by a Contract basis, almost the entire remaining mining pits, and so achieve a complete forest cover.
After all GGMC should easily agree to this suggestion to ensure Alluvial Mining has no negatives in this regard, as their(GGMC) existence, especially over the years relied solely on revenues from our Miners.
Thirdly USE–Without the use of Mercury in Gold mining, Gold mining will be impacted severely, and that will add and assist in bringing about the PLANNED earlier financial death of the Miner. There is no other method, whether Cyanide, Flotation or Centrifugal separation, that is a practical, safe and efficient method for the thousands of Gold Miners to use.
As long as every Gold Miner uses A RETORT, there is no justifiable reason to prevent the use of Mercury. In Guyana, mercury is in every solid waste dump site, exposing thousands of our city and rural population to this product, as it rises in the air, when the dumps are on fire, while most of it travels in the trenches, and into the Demerara River, where we eat the mercury contaminated fish, but we chose to ignore it, and instead we use the sparse population in the interior, and where the rivers flow with millions of gallons of water, making any mercury pollution almost impossible, as an excuse to add another weapon towards the Miniaturizing of the Alluvial Gold and Diamond Mining Industry.
Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association sent out special signature forms to Imbaimadai, Mahdia, Port Kaituma, and in those three (3) communities, 1800 signatures were collected from miners, who supported the accumulated Exemption of 4% (1.6 million acres of the entire state forest of 40 million acres), if necessary we will continue this exercise in other Mining Communities like Bartica, Linden, Pomeroon, Cuyuni to obtain more than 10,000 signatures of support.
Yours faithfully,
Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association