An agreement between Canadian-owned Romanex and the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment for the return of a section of their Marudi Mountain concession is nearing conclusion. However it is unclear what will be the fate of the lands.
“There has been an agreement reached whereby a section of that area will be returned. We are in the process of finalizing that particular area,” Minister of Natural Resources, Robert Persaud told Stabroek News on Thursday.
The Ministry had come under pressure over the Marudi concession after it was learnt that Romanex and its predecessors had occupied the areas for almost 20 years without ever having produced gold according to their original plans.
It was stated in February this year that the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) had been directed by the Ministry of Natural Resources to review the Mining Licence held by Romanex Guyana Exploration Ltd following a site visit.
The statement from the GGMC said that the Marudi Mountain Mining Licence was granted to Romanex Guyana Exploration Ltd. on the 17th April, 2009 after being held as a Prospecting Licence (large scale) from 1990 to 2009 by the said company.
“The site visit revealed no mining or exploration on behalf of the company was ongoing, while the Company had earlier committed to carrying out exploration activities within the early part of 2013, however, it is evident that no work is expected to commence on the property in the near future as no mining plan has been submitted.
“The investigation resulted from the recent Operation El Dorado in Marudi Mountain which was conducted to investigate reports of illegal mining”, the statement added.
In late February, the GGMC swooped down on the Marudi area and found dredges operating illegally in a concession that had been assigned to Romanex. After issuing the relevant notices to the miners, the GGMC began preparing to bring charges against the illegal operators.
However, days later, the Ministry of Natural Resources began meeting with some of the same illegal miners through the Rupununi Miners Association (RMA), during which there were discussions about a lottery of mining parcels for them.
The minister later explained that the lottery discussed was for all residents of Region Nine (Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo) and if the miners met eligibility requirements they too could enter.
The lottery did not go down well with Rupununi residents and they protested it as they stated they were not consulted on the allocations and that some of the lands were located in places that would negatively impact their lives.
Some also proposed that the lands be given to the communities and that they be responsible for their management.
Questioned on Thursday on if the lands reclaimed from Romanex will be given to villagers in the area, Persaud informed that no decision has been made, except that it will immediately go to a demarcated “closed area”, as the agreement with Romanex has not been finalized. “That land will go to the closed area and then we will determine at that point and time how it is we make that process. I don’t want to prejudge that because a mechanism will have to be thought out in terms of how you dispose (of) that area and make it available for mining in that regard”, Persaud said.
He pointed out that since the lottery for residents of Region 9 was scrapped there was a possibility that the land could be allocated to them. ”We cancelled that and we will have to address those persons who would have been awarded (then) with alternatives”, he said.
As for the miners at Marudi, some who have since been lamenting huge debts incurred at financial institutions, Persaud said that that will have to seek to regulate themselves. He also stressed that illegal mining will not be tolerated.
“There is no justification for illegal mining certainly they will have to abide by GGMC regulations that they be part of the mining sector …we cannot legalize an illegality. They will have to comply with the regulations …and then follow that requirement. If we do that what is wrong with any one in Guyana to decide that they will engage in an illegality and then hoping that we will come and we will baptize it,” he said.
There had been concerns that by discussing the lottery with the illegal miners, the ministry would have sent the signal that it was condoning illegality. The miners found to be mining illegally at Marudi are still to be charged.
The Marudi controversy also sparked a confrontation between the illegal miners and a police/GGMC mission. This led to the widely publicized beating of a woman by a policeman. The beating was videotaped and circulated on the internet. A policeman was subsequently charged.
The crackdown on the illegal mining also saw the GGMC claiming that the illegal Marudi miners had not declared an ounce of gold only to have some of the miners produce receipts for gold that they had sold to the Guyana Gold Board. The Ministry was to have looked into this but there has been no further word on the receipts.
Romanex at one point had indicated that mining would have started in 2009. The company had done its exploration work and said it would have produced between 50,000 and 100,000 ounces per year. However, no mining started.
