For all the economic options that seem set to be afforded by the advent of oil and gas, Guyana is not about to give up on those sectors that have, over the years, helped to sustain the country’s economy, not least, the gold mining industry. Towards this end it continues to probe those opportunities for the enhancement of the sector afforded by strategic collaboration through both bilateral and multilateral opportunities.
Earlier this week the Ministry of Natural Resources announced that the Government of Guyana had concluded a Memorandum of Understanding with Chile aimed at enabling various forms of practical and technical cooperation in the gold mining sector.
The MOU, signed by Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman and Chile’s Minister of Mining Baldo Prokurica who heads the state-run National Service of Geology and Mining (SERNAGEOMIN) in Chile, is aimed at providing “a framework for the exchange of scientific and technical information, visits, participation in training, conferences and symposia.” The scope of the MOU goes further, facilitating “the exchange of professional geoscientists in areas of mutual interest…Specific areas of cooperation include, but are not limited to geochemical and geological mapping and data analysis, economic geology and metallogenesis”.