Natural Resources and the Environment Minister Robert Persaud has ordered an investigation into claims by several miners being evicted from the Romanex claim at Marudi Mountain, in Region Nine, that they were paid for gold they sold to the Guyana Gold Board.
Persaud was reported as telling the Government Information Agency (GINA) yesterday that no illegalities by either miners or Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) officials would be sanctioned.
“…No form of any illegal act will be tolerated and the GGMC and the Guyana Gold Board have been mandated to undertake a comprehensive investigation into these claims,” he was quoted as saying, a day after Stabroek News reported that some of the miners that were being evicted from Marudi Mountain site have produced payment orders for selling raw gold to the Guyana Gold Board, in effect disprove a claim by the GGMC that none of them had declared a single gramme of gold and that there were no records of production.
The operators of the dredges in the area, the GGMC claimed, extracted minerals, illegally sold their yield and evaded payment of royalties and taxes.
But miners showed this newspaper Guyana Gold Board orders for payments, dated as recent as last month, for quantities of burnt raw gold it received from them.
Among the miners is Errol ‘Michael’ Prince, the husband of Verona Prince, the woman that was beaten at Marudi by police along with her sons during a GGMC operation to shutdown illegal operations at Marudi.
Prince was one of the 22 dredge owners that the GGMC claimed were mining illegally on the land at Marudi Mountain licensed to Romanex, but he rejected claims by the GGMC that he did not pay royalties. “I don’t want them to feel that we have a problem with them or want a story but they saying that we never paid or declared a gramme of gold is just a lie,” he told Stabroek News.
The GGMC on Monday announced that it was preparing to file charges against “raiders” engaged in illegal mining activities in the Marudi Mountain,
GINA noted that on Thursday, ministry officials met with miners and among general concerns raised were efforts to end illegal mining in the Marudi Mountain and access to mining properties by small miners in the location.
It added that it was agreed that through representatives of the Rupununi Miners’ Association that GGMC’s efforts to curb illegal mining will be through special planning and land management. “This will also be used as a guide towards building government’s capacity to undertake integrated regional planning procedures and better manage its mapping, cadastral and land administration data base supported; they will collaborate with the GGMC and the Guyana Police Force in the ongoing investigation of the police-supported operation at Marudi Mountain where allegations of police excesses were made, and a Special Mining Lottery will be held on March 30, 2013 in Lethem for legitimate small miners/residents of Region 9,” GINA noted, while adding that the association indicated its support of the ongoing review of Romanex Mining Licence for the Marudi Mountain.
