Limits will have to be placed on how much of Guyana’s resources one person or one company can access, according to Minister of Governance Raphael Trotman, who has vowed to ensure transparency in the mining sector.
In an interview with Stabroek News on Mon-day, Trotman said he has spoken to Commissioner of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) Rickford Vieira regarding managing the sector in a transparent manner and being more open to avoid incidents or the perceptions of corruption. According to Trotman, a lot depends on the attitude of policymakers and he is happy that President David Granger has retained the portfolio of natural resources and the environment. He said the knowledge of the President’s character and integrity will permeate and will be the hallmark of the management of the sector. “I’m just a trustee, a steward on his behalf,” he said.
“As I’ve explained wherever I’ve gone, nobody is gonna embarrass the president or this government with skullduggery and nonsense and we’re well aware of the perceptions and we’re well aware of the anecdotes and we’re well aware of the known cases of, I won’t say corruption, but areas in which favouritism seems to have been shown for one person or one company or one group as against another,” Trotman asserted. He said that they want to make sure that Guyanese can not only enjoy the benefits of the resources sector but must be able to participate as well.
In terms of access to land for mining, Trotman said that they will not encourage monopolies or cartels or large miners to continue to grow large at the expense of small miners. The government wants to ensure that lands are always available for those who are not mega-miners, he said, while adding that the process has started.
He said caps will have to be placed on how much land any one person or entity can access. Sugges-tions of caps on land holdings have irked miners in the past. In a sense, there are already caps, Trotman said, pointing to the Guyana’s boundaries and the forest protection partnership with Norway. “There will have to be caps on mining in general and on large, medium and small scale mining, in particular, they are unavoidable,” he declared.
He added that they would not stop a person from going beyond a limit if the person or company can justify the size of the land requested. He said that they do not want to discourage large production and at the same time, do not want to encourage miners creating monopolies even as he noted that some miners get larger and squeeze out small miners. “That’s certainly something… we have to look at but I can’t say definitively now that we are about to introduce caps but certainly as a means of managing the sector and the resource seeing it both as part of the national patrimony and also being able to manage it at present, limits will have to be placed on how much indeed one person, one company or one group can access,” he explained.
The minister also said that the ministry will review mining auctions to make sure that they are transparent and people who participate are those who really need the auction. He said that some miners win the blocks then issue an irrevocable power of attorney to others thus defeating the entire purpose of auctions which, according to him, is to ensure that small miners share in the resources. He said that this is among a number of initiatives being examined.
Trotman said he has also spoken with the GGMC commissioner about perceptions of foreigners and said that it must be balanced. He explained that while foreigners are invited to invest, the balance must not be so skewed that Guyanese are shut out. The authorities must be able to apportion a fair share for both, he said, while adding that the same goes for the Guyana Forestry Commission.
Respect
He said that he met with RUSAL last weekend and told them that government welcomed their investment but expects three things from the company: respect for the laws, respect for people especially workers and their rights, and respect for the environment. “If they are prepared to adhere to those three, we’re prepared to work with them, if they’re not well then we’re not prepared to work with them and we’re not prepared to compromise on the laws of Guyana or compromise on the rights of our workers and allow anyone to just literally plunder the environment and walk away without a care in the world, so that has to stop,” the minister declared.
Trotman said that from visiting various places around the country, what is happening can be clearly seen and there is a need to strike a balance between business and maintaining a healthy environment and that includes how people are treated and how companies operate within communities.
Meantime, the minister said gold production to date is lower than the comparative figure last year. He said government has to create a stimulus package for the mining industry so as to ensure not just production but declaration of production. The minister said that some of the ideas being considered are not new and these include duty-free concessions for critical plants and equipment. Everyone recognizes that some concessions have to be given to the industry to stimulate it, he said.
Another proposal being examined is to make it less attractive for persons dealing with gold and diamonds to smuggle and one suggestion involves adjusting the royalty on a sliding scale so that when the price is not at its best, the royalty is lowered so that the opportunity cost of smuggling is greater. Trotman said these proposals will be worked out and he will meet miners in a fortnight and also speak with the relevant government officials and entities such as the Minister of Finance and the Guyana Revenue Authority.
In terms of miners complaining that large-scale companies are given greater concessions, Trotman said that there will always be tension between small and large miners. It is government’s job to make lands available and assist small miners to have the capacity to develop, he said.
Curacao
As it relates to the 2012 gold smuggling case in Curacao, the minister said that he intends to follow-up on it and emphasised that gold smuggling needs to be addressed in a serious way. In November 2012, the Guyana-registered ship Summer Bliss was raided by armed gunmen, moments after it moored in Curacao. They took 476 pounds of gold, which fuelled speculation that the gold might have been smuggled from Guyana. The probe has stalled since authorities there cannot find the Guyanese crew.
In relation to Baishanlin director Chu Hongbo being given access to large amounts of land, Trotman said that it was discussed with GGMC officials and he is investigating but not as it relates to Hongbo getting Guyanese citizenship. “But certainly I don’t want anything that is a ruse or used as a kind of stratagem to get around that which we know we don’t want whether it is Baishanlin or any other big company. We want you to try to manage what you have and not squeeze out small miners so it is a matter of concern to me yes,” he said.
In April, the GGMC had defended mining claims held by Hongbo and said that he had become a naturalized Guyanese citizen. With 109 medium-scale mining properties, Hongbo is the third largest holder of medium-scale mining permits in Guyana.
How Hongbo acquired a Guyana passport is a matter for the Ministry of Citizenship and Home Affairs to look into, Trotman noted. But as to whether it was used as a device or stratagem to be able to access more resources, “I don’t know how much of a Guyanese he is. [As] a carrier of a passport, we have got to accord him the rights of citizenship but those rights come with responsibilities and one of those responsibilities is living within the confines and operating within the confines of the law and recognizing as well that there has to be benefit sharing for all Guyanese because Guyanese look out for each other. So you can’t try to acquire everything in the name of being a Guyanese,” he declared.
He also noted that the GGMC board will be appointed within the next two weeks.
