Amid accusations of landlordism, the miners’ association has denied that miners are engaged in such activity and instead demanded the release of some of the millions of acres of land being held by the Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) for mining.
“There is enough land held in the closed area system by the GGMC that all can mine, and with the recent abandonment of several new claims even more land is available to be issued. The issue of landlordism therefore rests with the holders of the land, the state,” management consultant to the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) Edward Shields wrote in a letter to Stabroek News on Wednesday.
“We agree legitimate miners need land and will not allow the government to divide the little that we have while hoarding the lion’s share of Guyana’s mineral wealth. The Association demands an immediate consideration and release of some of the millions acres of land being held by the GGMC,” he added.
A recent report that reviewed operations at the GGMC had expressed alarm at landlordism in the mining sector. It had noted that there is a tendency to “landlordism,” which has taken over the mining industry. “If the state of landlordism which was evident in the small-scale system was to be frowned on, then the state of ownership of Prospecting Permits (Medium Scale) and Mining Permits (Medium Scale) could only be described as scandalous,” the report had declared. It pointed out that a medium-scale mining permit caters for up to 1,200 acres. “Yet in this format, there are persons holding in excess of 500 Prospecting Permits Medium Scale and 100 Mining Permits Medium Scale,” the report asserted.
Stabroek News had published several articles based on the report and Shields alleged that there has been an “orchestrated attempt to resurrect a conversation about landlordism in the mining sectors, specifically with reference to the local medium-scale operators who have been in the industry for more than 30 years.” The report, which was obtained by Stabroek News, was authored by Dr Grantley Walrond, Linda Heesterman and Jerry Goolsarran.
Shields said that the GGDMA is “greatly surprised” that the authors “did not apparently do basic research” on the issue of landlordism otherwise they would have noted that the issue was already dealt with extensively, by way of the Special Land established Use Committee (SLUC), established by former president Bharrat Jagdeo in 2009.
At the meetings of the committee, he said, the GGDMA had identified almost 12 million acres which could have been made available for mining at short notice.
“This calculation was done based on empirical evidence and clearly demonstrated that the problem was not the availability of land, rather that these lands were held by GGMC under several mechanisms, including state reserves and closed areas,” he wrote. The mining consultant added that as a result of the submissions made, the consensus of the committee in the final report was that there will be no capping.
“The GGDMA notes with alarm that the proposal by authors of the current “inception report” and the fact that figures relating to the majority of the land, where no mining is done (only prospecting and reconnaissance), have not been published. Only the figures for the land used by the medium and small-scale miners have been published,” Shields stated.
He said that Walrond, who served on both sides, both as Commissioner of Mines and as one of the large scale licensees of some of the best prospecting licences in Guyana, “is quite aware that the existing Mining Act and regulations do cater for those who occupy land and are not beneficially using it.” As an example, Shields pointed out that at the level of claims, anyone not working their claim for a period of two years can be challenged and may lose it.
“In terms of medium-scale licences it is only issued initially for a period of three years and can be renewed twice for one year each, after which the mining laws and regulations come into effect. Persons will then have to either apply for a new licence or said licence is cancelled, a fact Mr Waldron is well aware of since it has had a significant impact on properties once held under his name,” he wrote.
‘More lands available’
According to Shields, since the GGDMA position paper was submitted in 2010, over a million acres of land has been added to the closed area committee; approximately 1,000 claims were abandoned or given back each month for one reason or another.
“A preliminary investigation would have shown an average of 1,000 medium-scale licences were relinquished over the last year. As of March 31 this year, thousands of claims have become invalid due to lack of payment, and while the GGMC has granted an extension until the 30th of April, it is doubtful that most will be renewed, effectively making even more lands available,” he wrote.
“The question therefore of mineral lands not being available is moot. The question therefore is why this proposal on landlordism? It is most obvious that certain individuals want the government to breach their contractual agreement with licensees by taking away lands from legitimate holders and giving it to others. It is the opinion of the GGDMA that a more pertinent recommendation should look into a capping, not of land being used for mining and economic development, but rather on the amount of land that can be held within the closed area mechanism,” he declared.
The mining consultant emphasised that no miner owns the property for which a licence is granted and the owners remain the state, for which an annual rental fee is charged. “One must remember that the state is the guardian of all minerals in Guyana, miners are simply the tenants and both must operate within the law,” he said.
“Only the claim licence, once one pays their rent, can be held indefinitely, all other licences are subjected to a limited period of time. In addition, any failure to pay rental immediately grants the authority to cancel the licence without need for any additional reason,” Shields added.
He said that many of the experienced and hardened operators in the sector have been faithfully paying their rentals, even when gold prices were extremely low.
“It is useful to note that many at that hard time, were barely scraping out a living in the mining sector, and it would be grossly unfair to punitively deprive them of lands legally acquired and maintained. There has been a conscious investment of time and money to ensure that there is continuity by the larger operators and the Association finds it mind boggling that fly-by-night operators are seeking to use political leverage to claim lands legally rented and to tempt the government to act outside of the law. We have already seen this in action when, during the height of the gold price, several non-miners entered the arena largely as real estate agents acquiring and selling lands for exorbitant prices without any regard for the future of the industry,” he declared.
