What had appeared for several months to have been sharp differences between the Ministry of Natural Resources and representatives of mining syndicates over land allocation that had effectively stalled the commencement of work by the country’s first group of gold-mining cooperatives now appears to have come to an end following an encounter between the miners and Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman.
Earlier this week Stabroek Business learnt in an extended interview with Chairman of the National Mining Syndicates organization Renwick Solomon, that differences over the allocation of mining lands to syndicates had been settled and that he was prepared to say that a point had been reached where the twelve syndicates that have already been registered are readying themselves to begin work. Solomon told Stabroek Business that he believed that the formal activation of syndicates marked a “historic point” in the life of the mining industry since what it effectively signalled was that a way had been opened for small miners to take “real advantage” of the industry.