Deputy General Manager at Bai Shan Lin, Girwar Lalaram says that the company received no official notice from the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC) before the agency put out a public notice informing that the company was banned from mining laterite.
Speaking to Stabroek News on Saturday, Lalaram said, “The GLSC had no communication with us…we were speaking with the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission.”
According to Lalaram, GGMC’s communication to Bai Shan Lin was that the coordinates for the laterite pit were incorrect and that the GLSC were to have made some adjustments. “I made several inquiries to GLSC, [but to no avail],” said Lalaram.
In addition, Lalaram said that the company is committed to fixing the Moblissa road which residents had said that the company had destroyed and said that equipment has been mobilised for that purpose.
The GLSC said in a notice on July 7, 2013 that the lands at Three Miles, Mabura, Region 10, where laterite is being extracted by the company are state lands, and that no permission has been granted to anyone to extract laterite from that location. Further, the notice suggested that the Region Ten RDC had no authority to grant permission to the company to extract laterite from that location to fix the Moblissa road.
Based on records from the Wismar Bridge, the company had moved 144 truckloads of laterite but less than ten truckloads have been placed in a location to fix the Moblissa Road with the rest going to BSL’s Conception site. As a result, Linmine last week withdrew its concession to the company to cross the bridge free of cost.
Bai Shan Lin’s use of the pit in defiance of a cease work order and the damage caused to the farm road have added to concerns about the manner in which Chinese companies are operating in Guyana. The company had been warned earlier by GGMC about its extraction of laterite and sand and cease orders had been issued. The company was later found to be flouting the cease orders.
Chairman of the Region 10 Regional Democratic Council (RDC) Sharma Solomon said that the Region will continue to hold the company accountable for fixing the road and said that the residents will stop work on the company’s concession if this road is not done.
“BSL started fixing the road on Monday…the residents had planned to go into the BSL concession and stop the work. There was some sand and some laterite put on the road on Monday,” said Solomon.
“We heard that one of the trucks was stopped on Tuesday but we do not know who stopped it,” he said.
“We had raised this issue of BSL and the road works at one of our statutory meetings [between the Government and the Region] at the Office of the President. We heard from Prime Minister Sam Hinds that the company was very disrespectful. I told the residents to blame the Government for the situation,” said Solomon.
He said that in addition to BSL, there are other companies mining laterite at the location and they have not been issued with cease work orders. He asked why it was that the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment had not intervened when the laterite mining commenced in November.