Executives of Russian Aluminum (RUSAL) and a government team are expected to meet soon on the company’s plans for resuming Bauxite production here, Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat has said.
Bharrat recently told Stabroek News that the meeting will be held at the direction of President Irfaan Ali.
He stated that at a previous engagement the government was informed that the company required capital to resume operations at its mining site at Aroaima, Berbice River.
Bharrat explained that the investment, which is expected to be hefty, will have to cover dredging of the Berbice River and dewatering mines that have not been in use for approximately two years.
Stabroek News understands that the dewatering process can take several months to be completed.
At the same time, the Minister said that the company’s reappearance will have to coincide with the return of Oldendorff Carriers Guyana Inc (OCGI). OCGI is the company that was contracted to ship and transport bauxite from BCGI’s mines at Kurubuka in Region 10.
Subsequent to a breakdown in labour negotiations between Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GBGWU) and RUSAL, the company decided to halt operations, terminating the contracts of 300 workers. Workers and the company had been in a decade-long dispute over wages and working conditions.
About three months after RUSAL announced that it was suspending its operations, OCGI, announced that it was forced to shutter operations here. As a result of the closure, 132 employees were laid off.
In August 2020, during a meeting with the ministries and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, the company’s Country Representative, Vladimir Permakov, related that the blocking of the Berbice River by sacked workers to prevent barges from passing hindered critical work in the mines.
The company also said there were several technical matters which had to be addressed, such as the dewatering of the mines.
The company’s representative had further disclosed that the operating cost for extracting Guyana’s bauxite was not competitive on the world market as from other sources and there was now the potential added costs of remedial work do be done in the mine.
After months of protest, former workers, who had maintained a blockade across the Berbice River following their dismissal, removed the barrier after the new PPP/C government assumed office.
