Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman says he would petition the Ministry of Finance to set aside a greater portion of the gold royalties for land reclamation projects in mining areas, GINA reported today.
Trotman, who visited a pilot land reclamation project site in Olive Creek, Region Seven last week, told the Government Information Agency (GINA) that the Natural Resources Ministry, via the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), will be aggressively pursuing land reclamation.
The Minister pointed out that financing the project will be costly. Currently, miners pay the GGMC an environmental bond of $100,000. “It may be too much to ask them (miners) to pay a $1M, in view of all that is going on, but I believe that a percentage of the royalties received could be set aside,” Trotman said.
Additionally, GINA said that the government will be investing oil revenues, when it begins production, into reclamation projects.
“We have to bring it to a place or a point of optimum where as much reclamation is happening as there is mining. As we progress into having revenues from oil and gas, we’ve already made provisions for some percentage to be set aside from that for environmental protection and reclamation projects like these,” Trotman told GINA.
The Olive Creek project was undertaken in collaboration with Correia Mining Company. GINA said that it seeks to provide necessary data on natural reclamation.
An aggressive education awareness campaign, targeting miners, will soon be underway by the GGMC, GINA said, noting that miners are required by law to reclaim the lands they mine, however most of them do not.