The Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) has called on small miners who have recently formed syndicates to make sure they are not pawns in what it says are government efforts to divide and rule the industry, while detracting attention from the long term threat posed by new tax policies.
In a five-page press statement issued yesterday, the GGDMA sought to defend itself from accusations levelled against it in recent weeks by those small miners who have chosen to engage government as part of newly-formed syndicates.
Though the association offered the syndicates its best wishes, it questioned the motivation of Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources Simona Broomes, who has been at the forefront of the movement to form these groupings. “The Junior Minister has been in her post for approximately one year… [but] before now she had not attempted to establish these syndicates… rather the establishments of these syndicates have specifically coincided with the GGDMA and the GWMO [Guyana Women Miners Organisation] raising our strong concerns regarding the implications of the new tax policies on the sector,” it pointed out. It further argued that “any intelligent persons can see that this is a tactic to divide and rule the miners… a move directly geared at fracturing the small and medium scale mining industry by taking advantage of the crab in a barrel mentality that unfortunately exists in the industry and thereby gaining control over a chunk of a certain scale of miners to support current and future agendas.”
The GGDMA stressed that divisive rhetoric “will only do long term damage to the industry and the relationship between the various scales of miners” and advised these miners to ensure that what they receive is exactly what was promised and that the minister follows through with her commitments.
Particular emphasis was placed on the tax compliant requirement and exactly what it means for miners attempting to access benefits, such as land from the government. “In the recent releases regarding the syndicates, we note that in addition to lands, miners will have to be “tax compliant” in order to benefit from the government concessions,” GGDMA stated, before adding that based on the new tax policies for 2017, members of these syndicates are advised to get further details about what it means to be tax compliant.
“If due to this initiative many of you are finally able to develop yourselves financially, before you purchase new equipment to upgrade your operations or make any other investment, ensure that you have the advice of a proper accountant because in addition to the 7% that you will have to continue paying upfront on each ounce of gold sold, ensure that you put something aside and be prepared to pay out more monies to GRA come April 2018,” it advised.
GGDMA and the GWMO have been very vocal in their opposition to several new tax policies which formed part of several new fiscal measures announced in the 2017 Budget. Miners have questioned how a primarily cash-based industry would be able to provide the documentation now required to be considered tax compliant. They have also challenged the increase in tributors tax from 10% to 20%.
In a joint statement in December, they warned that the measures along with a previously proposed 3% reduction in the gold board price for gold can only lead to lower declarations and a decline in the sector that would take the economy into a negative spiral as they argued that there will be no growth without mining.
After engagements with the Minister of Finance and Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority, the organizations declared that these individuals don’t seem to understand the industry they are regulating and invited them to visit a camp. The GGDMA also in late January issued an ultimatum to President David Granger asking for a meeting and threatening strike action if the request was not met. Neither of these things has materialized.
In an attempt to defuse the prospect of a protest, the Minister of Finance recently issued a lengthy defence of dealings with prospectors and Minister Broomes has had a series of meetings with miners in the key districts, such as Bartica.
Several of these miners who engaged with the minister have issued statements sharing the benefits derived and attacking the GGDMA.
Lobbies for all
The association noted that “in almost every instance the authors of the letters take the opportunity to demonize the [GGDMA] and state that [they] do not represent the small man but rather only the big miners.” In its statement yesterday, the GGDMA noted that this is not a new sentiment but one that represents the views of those in the industry who are new and who have had no lasting financial success. Stressing that it has always represented the interest of the entire gold and diamond mining industry, with special focus on the small and medium scale miners, the GGDMA challenged its critics to identify “just one instance where our lobbying efforts were geared at a particular scale of producers.”
It also remind that for many years it has publicly made calls to the government to make mineralized lands available to small miners and have often highlighted that millions of acres are locked off in the Closed Area Committee that small miners can access to their benefit.
Additionally, it called on the Minister of Finance to make provisions through other avenues for individuals who meet the government’s requirements to access concessions while GGDMA will continue to assist its members.
This request comes on the heels of accusations that the GGDMA has been preventing small miners from accessing concession offered by government to operators.
With the recently renewed agreement between the GGDMA and the Government of Guyana offering concessions to miners based on levels of production and the operator being tax compliant, GGDMA stated that it is “self serving and ignorant for a non-tax compliant miner who is also passing little or no gold through the correct purchasing channels to blame the GGDMA for their inability to gain the said concessions.”
The GGDMA said it lobbied for these benefits to be provided for all scales of operators, however the manner in which they are accessed and the requirements before acquiring same were solely stipulated by the government.
Scapegoating
Additionally, the organization addressed claims that its membership controls the majority of the “good lands” and practices “landlordism” and charged that many of those making these claims are merely looking for a scapegoat for their own failings.
“Over the last few years as the price of gold had skyrocketed to record breaking heights, many persons possessing no historic ties to the industry [are] running into the bush to make “a quick hustle.” In addition to these new hustlers seeking lands, there are many unsuccessful miners with long histories in the industry who are very bitter over their lack of success due to bad luck, bad investments or in many cases, “blowing out their money” on sporting, various escapades and living the high life without reinvesting sufficient funds into their mining enterprise or saving some for a rainy day. Persons such as these should get out of the industry, as they will always end up in a bad financial situation and will always be bitter, looking for a scape goat to blame,” the GGDMA argued.
“We would stake that even if these short sighted individuals are given all the best mining lands in Guyana, at the end of it all they will still be penniless and blaming someone else for their current state without taking stock of all their bad decisions that preceded their predicament. Additionally, many of these same individuals had lands that they would have acquired via lottery and other means; often times they use the first opportunity to go to an established miner to flip the property for a quick buck, as they’re not willing to risk the investments associated with setting up a proper mining operation and setting aside funds to finance their operations,” it added.
The statement also challenges claims that the GGDMA is involved in “runnings” at the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) to acquire lands illegally.
Noting that at recent meetings held with syndicate groups about a week ago, attendees called for the removal of an official due to assertions that he is corrupt and facilitates many irregularities that apparently are only affecting the small miners but does not affect the membership of the GGDMA, the organization vehemently denied the accusation. “This is complete rubbish; if the membership of the GGDMA was benefitting from these irregularities, then why is it that the GGDMA had penned multiple letters to the Commissioner of GGMC requesting his removal long before this issue was raised at the recent meeting. Also, if we were benefitting from these irregularities and collusion, why is it that several of the GGDMA members and executives have ongoing court matters against the GGMC as a consequence of issues stemming from the land management division?” it questioned.
According to the GGDMA, the reality is that there are many issues at the GGMC that affect all miners, small, medium and large. The group stated that it supports the Minister of Natural Resources taking whatever actions are necessary to resolve these issues at GGMC and to deal accordingly with any miner who is involved in irregularities regarding the allocation of lands while emphatically denying that its President, Terrence Adams, is about to access any blocks in the Karrau area.
Exploitation
In addressing the claims that owners of lands evict lease holders after these lease holders would’ve expended sums to ascertain if there is gold on the land. “The GGDMA has continuously advocated that a contract be entered into by the property holder and the position holder in every instance where land is leased. We even suggested that a standard format be drafted that would ensure that persons who may not be able to afford a lawyer can just fill in a few pieces of relevant information and have a document that is legally binding without the legal counsel expense in every instance for such transactions. However, for the most part this has been rejected by most miners, small and medium scale, as they prefer to have “word of mouth” agreements,” it stated, while adding that this leads many times to no independent third party being able to easily ascertain who is at fault when the agreements fail as all they have is one person’s word against the other.
This loophole, the GGDMA noted, has been exploited both by land owners to kick persons off their lands and by many unscrupulous individuals who wish to work illegally and not pay anything for the right to extract minerals.
The GGDMA also said “raiding” is a massive problem in the interior and that some well-known raiders are now at the forefront of the recently formed syndicates. The GGDMA stated that these persons are infamous in the industry for raiding persons’ lands and refusing to stop working when they are caught or even paying some amount of tribute to the legal land holder for the minerals they have extracted. They have called for these repeat offenders to be banned from the industry for the lawlessness that they personify.
“Established miners who take action to remove these raiders are often portrayed as “big and bad bullies,” however the real bullies are the raiders who proceed without permission to take what is not theirs in the first place,” GGDMA stressed.
