Minister of Natural Resources (MNR) Raphael Trotman yesterday met with representatives of the eight licenced gold dealers to discuss proposed amendments to the Guyana Gold Board Act and Regulations including changing the amount of gold that may be legally held by a person.
A release from MNR said that the meeting took place at the Guyana Pegasus and along with the Minister were the Board of the Guyana Gold Board led by Chairman GHK Lall and General Manager of the Guyana Gold Board Eondrene Thompson along with Legal Officer Stacey Weever, Attorney at Law.
“…the proposed amendments provide for changes to the quantity of gold that may be legally possessed by a person; an extension of the period within which a producer may legally possess gold before selling to the Guyana Gold Board; the introduction of a special dealer’s licence to possess, sell or export gold and the ‘fit and proper’ criterion to be applied to persons seeking this; the increase of application fees, bonds, fines and penalties and new regulations related to the acquisition of foreign exchange and the strengthening of the gold trading regime”, the release said.
It stated that the discussions were deemed fruitful with a number of compromises made on both sides to ensure that the views and positions of all stakeholders were given due consideration.
Trotman, the release said, undertook to brief Minister of Finance Winston Jordan on a number of positions the dealers have laid out with a view to reaching a final position that could see the passage of the proposed amendments in the National Assembly after consultations with the licenced gold dealers.
Present at the meeting were Shawn Gurcharran of GBTI Property Holdings, Tamesh Jagmohan of El Dorado Trading, Marlon Roberts and Shawn Hopkinson of Gold Bar Development and Consulting Inc., Nazar Mohamed and Mohamed Safraz Husain of Mohamed’s Enterprise, Akeisha Paulsingh Thomas of Pure Diamond Inc., Vanderson Alves Alencar of Excel Minerals Inc., Mohamed Qualander and Mohamed Hussain of Dinar Trading and Aldron Alphonso of Adamantium Metals.
