The Government of Guyana will today sign a US$1.9 million mineral mapping agreement with United States-based company Global Venture for the mapping of this country’s resources.
Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat last week announced that the company had been selected from five which had bid earlier this year for the contract. Global Venture’s US$1.9 million bid was the most responsive.
Watts, Griffis & McOuat Limited (WGM) of Canada had placed a bid of US$1.3 million along with an additional $88 million. Another Canadian firm, Technical Management Group Limited (TMG) in partnership with Purple Rock Inc submitted a bid of US$2.8 million while SLR Consulting Limited of the UK bid £156,976 (approximately US$204,590) but it did not include expenses. Oculus Geophysical Resources of the USA had placed a US$1.5 million bid.
Bharrat said that Guyana’s mineral inventory or mineral mapping has not been updated for decades and it was possibly due to the country not being able to afford it. However, he said that times have changed and coupled with the fact that this country can now afford it, mapping is also important for future planning.
“Today I think we are in a better position, and as a country too, with our commitment in the Low Carbon Development Strategy [LCDS] it is important and necessary that we start the mineral inventory process in Guyana this year,” he said.
“We have recently awarded the contract. The contract will go to… a US company. Global Venture is that company that has been awarded this contract to start the mineral processing inventory. That is a process that will help the mining sector and at the same time to keep our commitments in the LCDS. It will be a multi-year project. We will start with specific mining districts – Mazaruni, Potaro, Northwest, the Cuyuni mining districts. Those are the four main mining districts. There are two others but we are going to focus on those four for now because we have a large amount of small and medium scale miners concentrated in those four mining districts,” he added.
“This is a project that will help us significantly to identify, not only where our gold deposits are, but all minerals, and you know, in keeping with what is happening around the world, especially in the transitioning phase from fossil to renewable, critical minerals are… needed. They are heavily in demand. If you look at lithium and other minerals, they are being sought after, especially in South America where there are traces of lithium.”
He said that Argentina was one of the world’s biggest producers of the ore along with other countries in South America and that was the reason why, “we believe there are traces here. This mapping will help us in the allocation of properties and ensure we safeguard our forest at the same time.”
