From what we know of the nature of the gold mining industry and those parts of the country where gold is mined, the reports of COVID-19 disruptions to mining operations come as no surprise. We have learnt over a short period of time that the nature and behaviour of the coronavirus necessitates response mechanisms that are attended by particular logistical arrangements and forms of behaviour (social distancing, is the prime example) to which mining operations, particularly small-scale ones, are not always particularly well-suited. As would appear to be the case with Guyana Goldfields (Sunday Stabroek May 24) even in the instances of the better-resourced gold mining operations, the onset of COVID-19 has resulted in considerable operational disruption seemingly on account of the fact that neither the onset of the coronavirus nor its behavioural characteristics were, it seems, anticipated.
To digress momentarily, it should be said that the very fact that the gold mining sector contributes so significantly to the country’s economy, to employment and to the welfare of families across the country entitles the mining locations themselves and the wider communities in which gold is mined to some kind of proportionate payback in terms of resources of various kinds, Not only is that payback, in terms of infrastructure and amenities, an altogether deserving input into the development of the people whose communities gave us our gold bounty; it serves, as well, as a means of strengthening the mining sector itself since the presence of health, education and social services, physical infrastructure and a reassuring security regime, to name a few, are directly related to the growth and development of the gold mining sector.
There can be no question that, over the many decades, neither government nor the private sector has done anywhere even remotely enough to build strong physical and social infrastructures around gold-mining communities. Popular discourses (including official ones) on gold mining revolve mostly around prices, profits, and perks. Further, within what one might call the gold-mining circle, (and that circle is quite a wide one these days) the preoccupation with gold prices usually revolves around personal gain much more than it does, public good.
Frankly, it would be interesting – but almost certainly acutely embarrassing, if figures could be made available to provide some indication of the percentage of the earnings from the gold mining industry that has been ploughed back into the regions that yielded those earnings – in terms of schools, hospitals, roads and other infrastructure, robust public security regimes and diversification-related investments like infrastructure – over the past two to three decades. Mind you, there has been, over time, no shortage of ‘sounding off’ at the level of government, particularly, about what is desirable in order to make mining communities more amenable to living and working in, though one might well ask, using the language deployed in the now-iconic 1984 Wendy’s hamburger chain commercial… “Where’s The Beef?”
The COVID-19 challenges that are being reported at Guyana Goldfields (and presumably at other large gold mining operations) will probably manifest themselves to an even greater degree in some of the smaller locally-owned mining camps where the more liberal behavioural norms often allow for less stringent adherence to the protocols associated with social distancing (this of course, is just another way of acknowledging that sex workers too are accepted as bona fide members of those communities) and where, in some, though not all instances, there may well be no formal operating regime addressing the issue of the coronavirus. Mind you, against this backdrop, account should also be taken of the fact that there are no constraints on travel between the coast and the hinterland for workers in the gold-mining sector including those operating at locations worryingly close to the Guyana/Brazil border.
Whether there are any meaningful short-term plans for engagements between government and the mining sector on these issues (and by “meaningful” one does not mean protracted palaver followed by little action or simply tokenistic gestures) is unclear. Frankly, except there exists some carefully concealed “Plan of Action” (in which case there is no reason why it should not be placed in the public domain forthwith) one must assume that no plan exists, at all.
There is, these days, never really any shortage of noises that have to do with the price of gold. Indeed – except one is sadly mistaken – the soundings currently emanating from the GGMC would appear to suggest that its concern is, a priori, with the coincidence between the ‘inconvenience’ of COVID-19, on the one hand and favourable gold prices on the other.
For government as much as for the mining community, the operational inconveniences in the mining sector that have arisen out of the advent of COVID-19 ought to be (if they are not) a poignant reminder of their overwhelming failure of the mining sector and its host communities over the decades.
