Miners have not yet accessed the $1 billion revolving fund set up to examine and test mercury-free gold mining equipment, with many of the technologies being very expensive, President of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Associa-tion (GGDMA) Patrick Harding says.
“We are still looking,” Harding told Stabroek News. “Most of them are expensive,” he added, citing costs of the equipment of over US$100,000, which he said that small miners cannot afford.
Last April, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) Clinton Williams said the $1 billion fund to examine and test mercury-free gold mining equipment would be activated “soon.”
He had said the $1 billion is intended to support the technological development, fabrication and testing of prototype plants and equipment and to seek to increase recovery rates of gold and reducing mercury use in the gold recovery process. When contacted for an update on the fund, Williams promised to send a response by Friday but did not do so.
Harding said that the GGMC and the GGDMA have been collaborating to come up with alternatives but so far have been unable to agree on those available. He said the GGMC has some alternative recovery equipment, such as the Knelson Concentrators and gold catcher and these will be piloted. Both the GGMC and GGDMA are anxious to find alternatives, he stressed.
Over two years ago, the GGMC had advertised for partners to operate and manage two Knelson concentrator processing plants. One is going to be operated by a large local operator and will go on-site by the end of this month, Harding said. He said that the other was being operated by another company but it is not active.
He said miners continue to use the sluice box and mercury, while emphasising that this was done within environmental protection regulations. “Most miners use a retort,” he said.
In terms of other technologies, such as shaking tables, Harding pointed out that this equipment does not replace the sluice box but rather, processes the material that comes out of the sluice box and he dubbed it a non-mercury “clean-up technology.” Only a few miners are using it and the recovery rate is similar to that of mercury, he said. The gold catcher also processes the material caught in the sluice box.
In contrast, he said the Knelson Concentrator would replace the sluice box but a small one would cost in the vicinity of US$140,000 and over.
In a recent statement, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment said the government, the ministry and stakeholders of the sector, including most importantly the GGDMA, are aware of the need to increase gold recoveries and eliminate the use of mercury in the gold extraction process. “The adoption and use of mercury-free and improved recovery technologies is even more critical now given the low gold prices experienced by the sector,” the statement said.
In this regard, the ministry pointed to the $1 billion Mercury-Free Mining Development Fund aimed at promoting the use of mercury-free and improved recovery technologies. “Collaborative work between GGDMA and GGMC are ongoing to identify and test the various technology available so that these processes can be adopted by mining operations and thus ensure greater recoveries, reduced costs, increased revenues and ultimately a sustainable gold mining sector,” the statement said.
Previously, Williams had said the mercury-free project would involve collaboration with the GGDMA and the Institute of Applied Science and Technology as well as the University of Guyana. Miners would also be able to access a portion of the fund to implement mercury-free methods and steps will be taken to develop appropriate financing/funding arrangements that will ensure that realistic interest rates and repayments models are facilitated by the chosen lending institutions, he had said.
He had noted the hesitancy of commercial banks to commit to the fund, with some saying they were liquid and wanting to charge higher interest rates or a management fee for administering the fund.
In October of 2013, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon announced that Guyana would begin implementing measures to phase out the use of mercury in mining. “Between 2013 and 2022, Guyana would exercise a phasing in of restrictions against importation and restrictions against the use of mercury in mining,” Luncheon was quoted as saying by the Government Information Agency (GINA). The same month Guyana signed on to the Minamata Convention on Mercury, agreeing to ban the production, export and import of a range of mercury containing products by 2020.
Miners have used mercury to separate gold for decades but part of it is lost in the process, contaminating rivers and soils. Mercury is toxic to human health and the environment and its use in gold mining is governed by strict regulations here but compliance is another matter.
Mercury is primarily used to create an amalgam with the gold and is later heated to separate it. In the process of heating, unless a retort is used, the mercury then enters the atmosphere, and precipitates back into the water, from where it enters the ecosystem and the food chain. A retort is a closed container, which traps and condenses the mercury vapour without releasing it into the atmosphere.
However, some miners use mercury in sluice boxes, which eventually leads to the pits being spiked. This system of mercury use is particularly dangerous because it introduces mercury directly into the water system.
The European Union and countries such as the United States have already banned the export of mercury.
