Small increase in gold production recorded – Bharrat

The head table at yesterday’s press conference. Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat is at centre. (Minister of Natural Resources photo)
The head table at yesterday’s press conference. Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat is at centre. (Minister of Natural Resources photo)

-does not see smuggling as an issue

The Ministry of Natural Resources (MoNR) yesterday stated that Guyana recorded a small increase in gold production compared to last year – 434,067 ounces to 432,113 ounces – but does not see smuggling as an issue as the figure comes at a time when one of the largest medium-scale producers has scaled down operations by some 40 per cent.

“I believe what is produced is declared right now. The thing is, a lot of people came out of gold mining,” Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat yesterday said.

Stabroek News understands that well-known gold mining family – the Alphonsos – have scaled down their operations by 40 per cent as they “have diversified and are they are doing construction, the shorebase, building hotels,” and “using the resource to invest other places.”

According to Bharrat, up to yesterday morning, gold was trading at US$2,666 per ounce.

The United States last year said that that some 10,000 kilogrammes of gold was smuggled out of this country between 2019 and 2023. It provided the information  after it impos-ed sanctions on gold traders and businessmen Nazar Mohamed and Azruddin Mohamed.

The Minister was asked about the impact of smuggling on the sector and responded that it was hard to gauge, because while reports from nearby countries such as Brazil, would allege that illegal gold found there originated from here, it could just be using this country’s name as a convenience.

“I have seen these Brazilian reports but we have to be careful. Not every situation in Brazil where the authorities hold gold means it’s coming from Guyana. There is insinuation and perception that everything there is an operation in Brazil and they catch illegal gold, it means it is coming from Guyana,” he said.

“The last one it was coming from an Indi-genous village right in Brazil… it wasn’t Guyana gold,” he said although admitting that there is no way to prove the origin of the gold “only to an extent”.

He acknowledged that there have been instances where people smuggled gold out of the country but whenever the ministry gets a lead, it works on it to curb the illegal act. “The operation is ongoing and it involves a number of agencies including the Ministry of Natural Resources. So, that is an ongoing process and will continue and intensify. We have been getting information and we act on information as we get them. And, we are encouraging any Guyanese, any person with information to share it with us,” he said.

Over the last two decades, governments here have been warned about the large-scale gold smuggling out of the country but there have only been a few successful arrests.

In  June of last year, GRA officers seized a large quantity of gold jewellery from three passengers, two of whom are US citizens, who were attempting to leave on an outbound American Airlines flight bound for New York, USA.

The operation, which was fully supported by officers of the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), and the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU), led to the discovery of approximately 240 ounces of virtually pure gold disguised as silver-plated jewellery, intended to be shipped out of the country without the necessary permits and declaration to Customs officials, with a value of over US$560,000.

There have been overt displays of the illicit hoarding of gold by dealers and in a notorious occurrence, the theft of a huge shipment of gold in Curacao in 2012 which was believed to be en route to the US after being loaded in Guyana.

Commingled

There have also been questions about Venezuelan gold being commingled with Guyana’s gold.

While Bharrat noted that revenue generated from gold production increased by US$181 million where total revenues for 2024 was pegged at US$989.9 million, he said the sector still faced challenges as labourers are moving away, although he did not say if it was to oil and gas.

“There are many challenges that we are still faced with in the sector, weather being a big challenge, and over the last three years we have moved from flooding in 2021 to drought in 2023, and as you know gold mining is affected seriously by the weather,” he said.

Labour, he added, also continues to be an issue, and has been the cry of many miners. “Labour is an issue, and you know that across all sectors because of the amount of investments and economic opportunities, available across all sectors in the country, it has put a strain on the labour force, with many persons moving away from the mining sector.”

Asked if he believed that sanctioned businessmen Nazar Mohamed and Azruddin Mohamed not buying gold has affected declarations, he said, “I don’t know because people would find other channels, legal channels, to sell their gold and we can see it in the Guyana Gold Board’s purchases. In 2023 it was like 87,000 and in 2024 it was like 140 something thousand. So there was almost like a 50,000 increase in the Guyana Gold Board purchases,” he said.

The Gold Board’s increase also has to do with its outreach in mining communities where they periodically visit with a “mobile unit moving around”. “We have Marudi, Lethem, and Puruni so people can get access,” Bharrat said.

One setback to the mobile outreaches is that the GGB cannot do total cash transactions. “They will give you maybe $1.5 million cash and a cheque for the balance. Some miners need their money upfront because they need fuel, they have to pay workers, have to buy rations…. sometimes that is why they don’t go to the Gold Board,” Bharrat explained saying that the amounts cannot increase because “we have to adhere to CFATF and so forth”.

Meanwhile, raiding by locals on areas in the hinterlands continues to pose a challenge for monitoring by the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC).

 GGMC Commissioner, Newell Dennison, yesterday reported that there were hundreds of illegal raids for last year.

“Within the last two or three weeks of December, we have had maybe about half a dozen interventions in one location alone. A week after you go back, a week after you go back again, and that’s not the only area where that is going on. I would figure that quite a few hundred of those activities that we would have responded to”, he said.