Baishanlin director Chu Hongbo’s naturalization as a Guyanese citizen ensures that at least 50% of the shares of Bai Shan Lin Mining Development Company Limited are held by Guyanese.
This was disclosed by a source close to the matter who recently told the Sunday Stabroek that Bai Shan Lin Mining Development Company Limited has several shareholders including Guyanese and Chinese. However, until Hongbo attained Guyanese citizenship via naturalisation, the company was mainly held by Chinese. With Hongbo now a naturalized Guyanese citizen, the shares in the company are split 50/50 between Guyanese and Chinese.
Earlier this month, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) had defended mining claims held by Hongbo and said that he had become a naturalized Guyanese citizen. The GGMC had also declared that at least 50% of shares of Bai Shan Lin Mining Development Company Limited are owned by Guyanese It was not previously known that half of Bai Shan Lin Mining Development Company Limited was held by Guyanese nor that Hongbo had become a Guyanese citizen.
The firm is part of a group of 11 companies operating in Guyana which are all part of the China Forest Industry Group (Hong Kong). The majority of the other companies under the group in Guyana including Baishanlin International Forest Development Inc engage in logging and have attracted controversy on several fronts.
The GGMC had come under scrutiny over a number of issues including the awarding of mining properties intended exclusively for Guyanese to Baishanlin. However, the GGMC said that the inception report of a Management and Systems Review of various divisions in the GGMC that was compiled earlier this year and authored by Dr Grantley Walrond, L Heesterman and J Goolsarran, contained “glaring inaccuracies.”
Among other things, the report had revealed that with 109 medium-scale mining properties, Hongbo is the third largest holder of medium-scale mining permits in Guyana.
The report had also highlighted Baishanlin’s 72 mining claims, since the claim system was intended exclusively for Guyanese and it was never the intention of the Mining Act to allow non-Guyanese persons and corporations to operate in the small-scale or medium-scale mining systems. At the end of 2013, the list of claims in existence on the GGMC website showed 72 claims held by Baishanlin though they are shown as abandoned on a March 31, 2014 list. However, in the current claims list, there are new claims registered to Baishanlin, according to the report.
“How Baishanlin, a Chinese corporation with non-Guyanese owning the beneficial interest in the company, qualified to so operate, is indeed a mystery. This goes to the heart of a non-appreciation of the intent and fact of the law and is indeed worrying,” the report declared. “If the state of landlordism which was evident in the small-scale system was to be frowned on, then the state of ownership of Prospecting Permits (Medium Scale) and Mining Permits (Medium Scale) could only be described as scandalous,” the report added. It pointed out that one medium-scale mining permit caters for up to 1,200 acres. “Yet in this format, there are persons holding in excess of 500 Prospecting Permits Medium Scale and 100 Mining Permits Medium Scale,” the report asserted. Hongbo is one of the four persons who hold over 100 medium-scale mining permits.
In a statement after the Stabroek News reports, the management of the GGMC defended the allotment of mining properties to Hongbo and said that there were “glaring inaccuracies” contained in the report about the businessman.
“The report states that the company is non-Guyanese owned and should not be allowed into the small and medium-scale sector. The GGMC can assert that at least 50% shares of Bai Shan Lin Mining Development are owned by Guyanese; the company purchased 77 small claims from a Guyanese,” the GGMC said while adding that Hongbo is a naturalized Guyanese and thus entitled to acquire the properties via the relevant systems under the Mining Act and Regulations.
“In fact, 98 of his Mining Permits listed were won via an open competitive bidding process at last year’s auction. Several other miners listed for holding large acres of mineral properties were also accumulated through auctions managed by the Ministerial Committee (Closed Area Committee),” the statement declared.
