Guyana’s attendance at and participation in the March 6 – 9 Inaugural International Mines Ministers Summit of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) in Toronto, has enhanced the prospects for attracting investors from Canada and other parts of the world to the country’s gold-mining industry, Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment Simona Broomes has said.
“The real significance of our participation in the event had to do with the opportunity that the meeting in Canada opened up for us to have exchanges with other delegations, other countries with mining interests, including potential investors. It is what you can make of the opportunities that come from those meetings that is the challenge,” Broomes told Stabroek Business in an exclusive interview earlier this week.
Asked to comment on some of the specific outcomes for Guyana, Broomes said she was particularly satisfied with her engagement with neighbouring Suriname’s Minister of Natural Resources Regilio Dodson, during which areas of both individual and common interest in the mining sector had been identified and an understanding reached on the potential for further discussion. In the case of Suriname, she said that it had been established that high on the list of concerns of both countries was the protection of the rights of communities in mining areas, strengthening the culture of artisanal mining, enhancing economic diversification in mining communities, strengthening communication links between remote mining areas and coastal communities and fighting the scourge of trafficking in persons in mining communities.
“…We were able to agree that Guyana would extend an invitation to Minister Dodson to visit Guyana in the near future [for]… discussions, to, where possible, collaborate in addressing problems that might be common to the sector both here and across the border in Suriname. I can tell you that as a follow up to my meeting with the Surinamese Minister, our own Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, Raphael Trotman, is likely to communicate with his Surinamese counterpart in Paramaribo shortly.”
Broomes said it was also likely that Guyana and Suriname would explore the possibility of jointly showcasing their respective mining sectors at next year’s ministerial meeting in Canada. “Hopefully we can move to the point of working actively together in ways that can be of mutual benefit to our respective gold-mining sectors,” Broomes said.
In Canada, Broomes also met with a delegation from a major Chinese company involved in gold mining and non-gold mining metals processing of gold and real estate, among others.
She said that while she would not name the company at this stage, she was prepared to disclose that its principals are being invited to come to Guyana to further pursue its expressed interest in investing in the country’s gold-mining sector.
