Dear Editor,
Can the authorities say what the latest status is on the vessel that was seized and detained in Curaçao with 10,000 ounces of gold with a street value of US$12 million? We all know that the owner of the vessel is one of the prominent and wealthy businessmen in Georgetown. What about the investigation? Where are the crew members? What about the two persons who were charged? Where is the gold? Where is the vessel?
The silence on the Curaçao gold smuggling is deafening. Something fishy is really going on there. Can the relevant authorities get off their haunches and work for the taxpayers’ hard earned cash. If the authorities look in that direction they may have some of the answers to the so-called low gold production and supposed hoarding.
Then persons have the temerity and audacity to say that a businessman in north Georgetown is smuggling gold to Suriname. How can a young businessman who is in this business approximately a year be responsible for a gold shortage?
There are unscrupulous and uncaring businessmen who don’t want other prosperous and upcoming persons to be in the limelight. Hence they are fabricating stories so that the attention of the authorities will be diverted elsewhere. They want to control the monopoly in this country.
In the June 15 Sunday Stabroek an article was published under the heading ‘Lower production, not hoarding main cause of 20% decline in gold declaration.’ This reason was ventilated by industry insiders. Mr Edward Shields, a consultant with the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association said, “There is a crisis in the industry which started since last year.” He further said that “I am aware of many people who closed their operation.”
Mr William Woolford, retired Commissioner of GGMC also stated in the Stabroek News, that while the reason for the drop in declarations was anybody’s guess, he did not believe that it was due to hoarding by miners.
In the June 14 Stabroek News, Mr Malcolm Perreira wrote a letter stating that, “Sales of mining equipment in the gold industry have dropped drastically.” He further went on to say “With the insertion of Brazilians into the mining industry, it is a known fact that they are some of the smugglers and that some of them do it on a large scale.”
Editor after all those ‘experts’ had their say, there may be plausible reasons for the shortage and I list them hereunder:
1. worldwide reduction in the price of gold;
2. lower production;
3. miners closing down their businesses;
4. minimum hoarding by unscrupulous businessmen;
5. Brazilian smuggling of gold on a large scale;
6. the closure of the Bartica office and selling to non-licensed dealers.
Yours faithfully,
Gerald Sanichar
