Chairman of the Guyana Gold Board (GGB) Dr Gobind Ganga has confirmed that there are currently active discussions between the Board and German company Argor-Heraeus to possibly trace the origin of gold declared by miners.
“They approached the Gold Board,” Ganga told Stabroek News. He however noted that he could not say how long the discussions have been underway or how long until a decision on the way forward is made.
“I don’t have the details for that. I’ve said all I know which is that they are discussions to trace the gold,” he stressed.
The question of the origin of gold declared to the GGB has become increasingly significant following claims that Venezuelan gold was being smuggled into this country and co-mingled with the metal mined locally.
The mining of gold in Venezuela has been condemned by the United Nations due to criminal activities and grave human rights abuses in Venezuelan mining regions.
The United States has sanctioned the state mining company and in July 2020 the European Parliament called for an immediate ban on the trade and circulation of Venezuelan gold.
“[T]his so-called blood gold is extracted and exploited at the expense of human rights and the environment under illegal and criminal conditions which seriously threaten both,” the parliamentary resolution declared.
With the sanctioning of Venezuelan gold, any co-mingling could see Guyana’s gold exports similarly affected.
Argor-Heraeus, which purchases gold from Guyana, therefore has a vested interested in making sure the origin is properly sourced and recorded. The company describes itself as the largest global provider of services in the precious metal industry, including the fashioning of ingots for banks, traders and products for the electronic and chemical industries and productions of semi-finished products and solutions for watchmaking and luxury jewellery. Its clients include Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Phillip Morris, Ford, and Tesla.
Locally, there has been renewed interest in the gold trade following the disclosure in Stabroek News that the GGB was at one time investigating allegations made to the Minerals Grievance Plat-form (MGP) that local large-scale gold trader, El Dorado Trading, is connected to illegally sourced Venezuelan gold, a claim the company has denied vehemently.
Following the allegation, the Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) suspended the intake of El Dorado gold from the GGB until further notice.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has that the suspension is still in effect. He, however, maintained that there is currently no evidence of gold from Venezuela being smuggled here.
His claims were immediately challenged by former GGB Chairman GHK Lall, who said that Ganga had in 2019 said that there was evidence of gold smuggling from Venezuela that could have led to blacklisting of this country.
Jagdeo said that while there were allegations of gold being smuggled into Guyana, there was no evidence to substantiate this, but he pointed out that well-known gold trader Tamesh Jagmohan has been suspended from supplying the Guyana Gold Board since September of 2019.
He was asked about a probe by RCM that a supplier here sold smuggled gold from Venezuela. He said that the supplier in question, Jagmohan, has not sold gold to the Gold Board since that point.
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) had recommended in 2019 that a high-level team be established to conduct a comprehensive review of the trading of gold, amid concerns that Venezuelan gold was filtering into the local market in 2019, causing the Guyana dollar to depreciate.
The FIU is an autonomous body responsible for requesting, receiving, analyzing and disseminating suspicious transaction reports and other information relating to money laundering, terrorist financing or the proceeds of crime. It was established under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act (AML/ CFTA) 2009 and its Regulations.
The current and former Attorneys General, Anil Nandlall and Basil Williams, have both said that they are unaware of the FIU’s recommendation for a high-level probe of gold trading which was made in 2019.
