Dear Editor,
I refer to a letter in the Stabroek News dated September 17, 2008, captioned ‘Brazilians can mine legally in Guyana’ written by Mr Edward Shields, Executive Director Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association.
My letter was a response to one from Mr. D. Singh in which he was demanding that the Brazilians be chased out of Guyana, and at no time did I say that only Brazilians are mining illegally here. In fact a good friend of mine happens to be an Israeli gentleman who operates a dredge in the interior.

He also has failed under a process of application to obtain the necessary paperwork which would allow him to live and work here in Guyana, even though he has invested some millions in the mining industry here.
My letter is clear and my accusations stand: there is a substantial trade in gold which is offered to the Gold Board, which comes from people who do not have the dredging capacity to produce such large amounts of the metal, and that this system is being used to launder money.

If the Executive Director of our Gold and Diamond Mining Association is not aware that this laundering is occurring, and that Brazilians and other non-Guyanese are being exploited by a process which denies them the right to be licensed in their own names to mine at a level which is labelled small and medium-scale, then it is a very sad commentary on how he is representing the local industry, especially when it is apparently descending into the realm of illegality.
But the public is free to make its own judgement about Mr Shield’s statement that “apparently any illegal mining by foreigners takes place with those Guyanese who do not have claims or medium-scale licences and as a consequence they cannot enter into joint-venture agreements, which is apparently the case particularly on Amerindian titled lands.”

So here is my question: isn’t that what I said was the situation which is leading to money laundering in this country? And if it was, why did Mr Shields attempt to repudiate what I wrote?
Yours faithfully,
Anthony J. Vieira, MS, MP