Conservation International (CI) on Tuesday evening launched a new four-year-project geared at achieving mercury-free mining practices among small-scale miners.
The project, called “A supply chain approach to eliminating mercury in Guyana’s Artisanal and Small Scale Gold Miners (ASGM) sector: El Dorado Gold Jewellery – Made in Guyana,” is being funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) under the Global Opportunities for Long-term Development (GOLD) in ASGM programme. It is being implemented in eight countries around the world by the United Nations Environment Programme. The other countries that are expected to benefit from the project are Burkina Faso, Colombia, Peru, Kenya, Philippines, Indonesia and Mongolia.
Guyana is the first of the eight countries to implement the GEF funded project towards mercury-free practices by 2025 by directly involving business enterprise for leading the shift in the development of mercury-free artisanal and small-scale mining.
The project is set to explore the linkages with international markets that source mercury-free, responsibly-produced gold and support the local jewellery manufacturing industry.
The project would also be the foundation for broader collaboration interventions among key sector agencies, such as Conservation International, the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA), the National Toshaos Council (NTC), the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Of if its many anticipated benefits is that it would put Guyana on the map as it relates to demonstrating national and stakeholder commitment towards reducing the use of mercury through the adoption of mercury-free technology.
And with its “bottom up” approach as it relates to its direct focus on small and medium scale mining, the initiative is seen as underpinning the essence of inclusivity, given the wide range of stakeholders involved.
Vice-President of Conservation International Guyana (CL-Guyana) Dr David Singh, in brief remarks at the launching at the Pegasus Hotel, said the project aims to fill the growing need to build an integrated approach through which the gold mining sector can participate more effectively in the green economy.
“The US$3M four-year project is expected to produce a well-designed intervention, which, by 2020, will see mining operations in at least one geographical region in Guyana introduced into the market; gold products that are shown to have met key environmental and social safeguards; demonstrate improved significantly higher recovery rates and close to zero mercury use in its processing,” Dr Singh explained.
The ASGM will also be connected to supply chains and markets which use less or no mercury in the extraction of gold while efforts would also be placed on developing downstream El Dorado-branded jewellery.
Meanwhile, Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman, in his address at the launch, lauded the introduction of the new project while saying it falls in line with the government’s green agenda.
“This project, we believe, captures and addresses the essence of the many issues that we seek to manage in an extractive industry sector that is bracketed within a green and sustainable development agenda,” Trotman noted.
“The launch of this project is evidence of the growing maturity within our mining sector of Guyana where collaboration among stakeholders and advancement of more sustainable mining practices are being more readily embraced,” he added.
Trotman continued his praise of the project by highlighting continuous contributions made to the local economy by the small and medium-scale mining sector
“At the end of 2016, gold declarations stood at 705,802 ounces and this success was as a result of the hard work and sacrifices of miners who delivered 475,725 ounces of that total,” he said.
He noted too that the sector generated approximately US$700 million with an estimated 3,000 enterprises producing gold, 70 percent of which are small miners, with the rest being medium scale miners and two large producers.
Additionally, the sector is also the main source of employment and income for hinterland communities, including indigenous communities, and provides direct employment for 20,000 persons, the minister said.
It is in this context, Trotman said, that sustainability and benefits of mining are critical not just for those working directly with the sector but for the country at large. The minister also made note of the fact that Guyana was among the first to have signed onto the Minamatta convention (a global treaty aimed at protecting human health and the environment from the harmful effects of mercury) in October, 2013 and subsequently ratified it in September, 2014.
Also present at the launching were Executive Director of GGDMA Hilbert Shields, Dr. Sebastian Troeng, Senior Vice President of Conservation International, Ndibi Schwiers, Head of the Department of Environment of the Ministry of the Presidency, and Toshao Lenox Shuman of the NTC, all of whom endorsed the implementation of the project.
