As the price of gold tumbled further, yesterday’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) was expected to focus on, among other things, likely engagements with government on concessions for the sector in the event it slipped into a free fall.
Administrative Manager of the GGDMA Colin Sparman told Stabroek Business in a telephone interview on Wednesday that while the day’s gold price of around US$1,200 per ounce definitely had the attention of interested parties, the industry was still “nowhere near a condition of panic”. He said the industry had, in the past, worked with prices “below US$1,000 an ounce”; though slippage below that figure would almost certainly see approaches being made to government for some concessions. The official said the customary concessions in times of falling gold prices related mostly to fuel subsidies.
While yesterday’s AGM was to deal with various mundane issues like the election of