International instability is at least partly responsible for the exceptionally high price of gold currently, and as a not insignificant producer Guyana is attracting swarms of miners, not just from this country, but also from Brazil. There has been a Brazilian mining population here for a long time, but its numbers have been significantly augmented following President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva’s efforts to clamp down on illegal mining in Brazil’s Amazonian forest.
The people on the front line in terms of confronting the consequences of this mining explosion are the Amerindians, since they are the primary residents in the interior regions. In the last few years there have been increasing stresses between the miners and the country’s original inhabitants, although only in the most recent case has the government moved to halt a mining operation.
It has to be said, however, that in some areas Amerindians themselves are engaged in artisanal mining since in the modern cash economy they need resources beyond subsistence farming to be able to sustain themselves and function in the society at large. However, they are not the ones inflicting the major damage on the environment; they are the primary victims of both legal and illegal mining operations.
While the government pays lip-service to environmental and Indigenous concerns, its partialities are clear. At the end of last year in relation to mining at Marudi, Minister Vickram Bharrat emphasised the importance of mining to this country, saying it constituted the second-highest contributor to Guyana’s gross domestic product and employed 30,000 people. He also recited a list of all the benefits the administration had provided for miners, including the removal of VAT on various vehicles and other items, as well as the elimination of excise and tributers taxes.
Around the same time the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association was calling on gold miners to ramp up production in order to reach the 2024 annual target of 500,000 ounces. It went on to say that gold mining was a major foreign exchange earner and all efforts should be made to expand the industry.
Expanding is something it certainly has been doing, and despite the Wapichan villagers around Marudi, for example, mounting a series of official complaints relating to the horrendous environmental damage in the area, the fact that Marudi Mountain is sacred for them, that their prior consent for the resumption of mining there was not obtained, that the Rupununi Miners Association had invited hundreds of Brazilians to mine there, and that there had been a surge in violent crime, the government has not suspended operations in that location.
It was claimed by the villagers that many of the Brazilians were miners who had been evicted from Yanomami territory by President Lula. That is something which had been said the year before in relation to illegal mining in the New River Triangle. Brazilians had set up a camp there and subsequently a Brazilian pilot and labourer had been charged in our courts.
In terms of this year, however, the protected area under most stress was again Iwokrama. Last month the Project issued a release about an exercise to help suppress illegal mining, which reportedly included “a Brazilian national with family.” In the words of the release, the Iwokrama forest had a “long history of illegal incursions,” and had been besieged by gold mining over time in the Siparuni area despite “stern warnings.” Fourteen people had been arrested last year.
Stern warnings are insufficient, of course, as are Minister Bharrat’s asseverations that illegal activities by miners will not be tolerated. “Those who are engaging in such activities should desist, or risk being prosecuted by the state,” a release from his ministry stated. But in the absence of systematic prosecutions that caution deters no one.
Miners are not just intruding into protected areas, however, they are also encroaching on Indigenous titled lands, this time with the sanction of government agencies. This too has a long history, as the cases of Isseneru and Chinese Landing testify. The most recent instance which came to light last month was that of Jawalla in Region Seven whose inhabitants are largely Akawaio. While farmers work land within the boundaries of Jawalla’s title, miners press ever closer and threaten them with eviction.
One farmer in particular received an eviction order to vacate a mining permit and although he informed GGMC by letter that his home and farms were within the titled area he received no response. Instead he and his nephew were summoned to appear in the Essequibo Magisterial District Court accused of breaching the Mining Regulations. Owing to the short notice they could not attend, and a second order requiring then to move from the permit area was subsequently issued.
The Jawalla Village Council invested its own resources to hire a sworn surveyor to conduct an independent verification of the boundaries of titled land. This confirmed that the lands were part of the village title, but GGMC refused to certify this, saying the maps it used had been generated by the Lands and Surveys Commission.
The Upper Mazaruni District Council has itemised all the breaches of the Mining Act and the Amerindian Act and the lack of prior consultation, and has demanded the immediate cessation of all mining activity.
The violations of the two acts, of course, can only be proved beyond doubt if the land has been officially surveyed, and it is not clear from the reports whether that has been done. If it was, then the behaviour of the two agencies, particularly the GGMC, is reprehensible, and if it wasn’t, then why is the Minister of Amerindian Affairs not campaigning for it, and Minister Bharrat giving some substance to his idle remarks about non-toleration for illegal mining?
There is one curious aspect to the story, and that is that in 2023 Jawalla won $20m damages against a miner and the GGMC for breaches of the Amerindian Act. There is insufficient public detail available to know whether it has full relevance to the current situation. Whatever the case it is time the appropriate Ministers spoke, and did some explaining; this is no way to treat citizens of this country, who to all appearances have right on their side.
The most recent case was that of Aranaputa in Region Nine, where the government in the form of Minister Bharrat did back down. Strictly speaking Aranaputa is not an Amerindian village in origin, although its population nowadays no doubt includes many Macushis. This newspaper had carried a story recently about Region Nine Chairman Bryan Allicock and residents of the region objecting to the granting of a mining permit to Aranaputa’s NDC in partnership with a Brazilian company Sol Nascente.
Mr Allicock had cited the absence of an Environ-mental Impact Assessment or Social Impact Assess-ment, and many village leaders and residents ex-pressed concerns about the contamination of freshwater sources, the effect on fish populations and the potential damage to the Rupununi wetlands. There were also complaints about the lack of consultation.
Minister Sukhai was present at the signing of the permit in Aranaputa, but due to the huge outcry – and that at a high level in the region – Minister Bharrat ordered a suspension. Most in the region want that made permanent. As the Minister of Amerindian Affairs Ms Sukhai should know that is not the way to proceed, but as is normal she has remained her uncommunicative self where the matter is concerned. The episode should be a lesson for the government as a whole, and in the light of that they should review the Jawalla situation with some urgency.
