Dear Editor,
Excuse me, we are expected to believe that the PGGS over the New River Triangle will not lead to prospecting and mining?
We have the names of two directors of the permittee company. They are both well known to be in the mining business in big ways. They say the company’s surveys will cost millions of US dollars, starting with the construction of an airstrip in that remote area. They expect their surveys to show indications of valuable minerals, for which, the PGGS states, they may apply for 18 licences to prospect further. Prospecting for the purpose of subsequent mining. That’s the reason for investing in surveying and prospecting.
Who is trying to tell us that Yucatan Reis and Dean Hassan would lead an investment in surveying and prospecting without being satisfied it would result in mining? Wouldn’t we be stupid to believe that such successful miners would be stupid enough to form a company, get a PGGS, invest in airborne surveys with ground support, then a string of EISAs, bonds and unenforceable formalities ‒ all that money, for no mining there?
Let’s look, just for a start, at the ground support for the airborne surveys in that remote area. The airplanes would have to fly so far from established refuelling points that their actual survey time would be limited. So an airstrip is needed right in the remote area, to hold stocks of aviation fuel, servicing facilities, crew accommodation, security, etc, etc. How do you get all that fuel and other stuff to that survey base in the New River Triangle?
You need a road that links to existing roads to the Rupununi. A road from Parabara ‒ ring a bell? Yes, that road, the one that the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment has assured us will not be built ‒ if it’s mining-related. Junior Martin, the Brazilian contractor, and his Guyanese clients can relax. Their road will be deemed survey-related, and the survey isn’t mining-related either, right?
All of a sudden, all the Guyanese who know what’s going on are assumed to be so stupid we can’t connect the dots? Let’s forget, for now, the sale of our children’s patrimony ‒ what hurts today is the colossal insult to our intelligence. The assumption that we can be ignored ‒ or, if we make a squeak, we can be bought. Or stomped on. Either way, that we, and the future of the nation, are negligible in the pursuit of dirty money.
Maybe, painful as it is right now, until the fuss dies down like it always has, maybe those assumptions are correct. Maybe we are all indeed that stupid. None of us could say it better than Alexis de Toqueville: “ …the people get the government they deserve.”
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address
provided)