Guyana’s gold-mining industry is characterized by varying degrees of flagrant disregard for the law and operational practices that do serious damage to the environment and to the lives and livelihoods of the host communities, according to a well-informed mining sector source.
In a recent exclusive interview with the Stabroek Business the experienced mining engineer said that the rise in gold prices particularly over the past year has precipitated a “gold rush” that has accentuated the stretched and limited monitoring capacity of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) and significantly increased the level of lawlessness in the mining sector. “The GGMC simply does not have the capacity to respond adequately to what is an escalating crisis,” the source said.
The past year has seen a sharp rise in the price of gold from US$675.00 per ounce in May 2007 to US$1,002 by March this year and according to the source while the price gradually slipped to $880 by earlier this week the upward price has seen a unprecedented increase in the number of operators in the mining sector. And according to the industry source while the number of operations in the country’s mining areas has probably doubled over the past eighteen months, many of the new entrants in the mining sector are “small time hustlers” who are simply seeking to ‘cash in’ on high gold prices.
“One of the consequences of the current gold rush is that many of the new miners are operating on small budgets in what is an expensive business. Their methods of operation are designed to reduce costs in ways that break the laws and harm the environment.”
The source explained that the operations of some miners are simply limited to “digging holes at random” in the hope of finding gold. “When no gold is found and they cannot afford the cost of backfilling the holes that they have dug they simply abandon them and move on. Open holes then become flooded and serve as breeding grounds for mosquitoes and the entire area becomes vulnerable to malaria outbreaks,” the source added.
According to the source one of the primary manifestations of the reckless mining practices in evidence in Guyana is the high level of turbidity of the rivers and streams in mining areas. He said that in numerous cases the high level of sandy, polluted deposits from mining operations had not only completely changed the colour of the water but had also destroyed plant and animal life, damaging delicate ecosystems and threatening critical food and water sources in host communities.
Other dangerous and environmentally unsound mining practices identified by the source include the indiscriminate felling of trees in areas where gold deposits are believed to exist and the mining of gold in or around populated areas. The source explained that while the practice has resulted in protests from some Amerindian organizations including the Amerindian People’s Association (APA) there were instances in which individuals and groups in those communities were allowing their lands to be mined in exchange for ‘a percentage of the returns.”
Asked about the role of the GGMC in reducing the proliferation of unsafe and environmentally unsound mining practices, the source said that while there was no scarcity of regulations governing mining activity, the GGMC lacked the capacity to provide an effective monitoring service. “The fact is that the GGMC does not have the human resource capacity to do an effective monitoring job. The agency may make a fuss over those transgressions that it discovers. However, the fact of the matter is that the overwhelming majority of the more serious transgressions go undetected and at any rate it is questionable whether the GGMC is actually able to apply effective sanctions against those transgressors who are caught,” the source said.
According to the mining engineer while there have been cases in which miners have been prosecuted for infringement of mining laws and had their licences rescinded, many of them have managed to continue their operations by transferring responsibility for their equipment and their mining activities to other persons.
The source told Stabroek Business that improving the regime of mining practices in Guyana depended on stricter enforcement of the laws as well as a higher level of self-regulation on the part of miners. He said French Guiana provided a good example of safer, more responsible mining practices resulting from stricter enforcement of rules. According to the source the mining authorities in French Guiana had put in place criteria for mining permits which included evidence that applicants were financially in a position to conduct safe and environmentally sound mining operations.
Meanwhile, the source told Stabroek Business that the continued environmental damage resulting from unsafe mining practices was being accentuated by the seeming indifference of the authorities here to the international lobby to ban the use of mercury in the mining sector. The source noted that while the use of mercury in gold-mining operations has been banned in several countries, there was “no real evidence that the authorities in Guyana were supportive of the use of mining methods that excluded the use of mercury. According to the source while the use of mercury remained “the cheapest option,” there were alternative procedures that were much more environmentally friendly and no less efficient. He said that a critical element in the process of “cleaning up” the country’s mining sector was a more positive response on the part of the authorities to efforts to ban the use of mercury in the local mining industry.
Meanwhile the source told Stabroek Business that the uncontrolled movement of garimpeiros from Brazil into Guyana continued to pose additional challenges for the country’s mining sector. He said in some cases failure to develop operating infrastructure including sanitation facilities in areas being mined by garimpeiros had resulted in the creation of areas that are characterized by conditions that are sufficiently polluted to result in the outbreak of diseases.
The source told Stabroek Business that while the increase in the number of operators in the mining sector was essentially a response to high gold prices, many of these operations were inefficient and unprofitable. “In some cases the miners are heavily indebted and are totally preoccupied with making a killing, In those circumstances they are not particularly concerned with upholding the mining laws or pursuing environmentally sound mining practices. The net effect of this has been a spreading of bad mining practices across much of the industry,” the source added.
