Amid the slump in gold declarations and complaints about mined-out lands, prospectors yesterday began snapping up 1,000 medium scale parcels up for auction and in some cases bids reached as high as $1.2M after starting out at $60,000.
Auctioning under the auspices of the Guyana Geology and Mines Com-mission (GGMC) is set to continue today and is one of a raft of measures the government is taking to reverse the slump in gold declarations.
More than a 100 gold miners turned out for the first auction in five years yesterday. The lengthy process to allocate medium scale properties saw intense bidding at the auction, which was held at the Girl Guides pavilion at Brickdam.
The lots were from the six mining districts across Guyana: Berbice (#1), Potaro (#2), Mazaruni (#3), Cuyuni (#4), North West District (#5) and Rupununi (#6). The successful bid merely gives the bidder the right to apply for the mining permit.
Each lot was a maximum of 1,200 acres, for which the bidder would be required to pay an additional 25