Dear Editor,
It looks like the Guyana government has not learned from Omai. They raped the last mine, polluted the river that caused massive environmental and social damage, and then told us that they did not make a profit because the gold price was low.
The PPP was against the PNC approval of similar projects, but now they are guilty of doing the same, giving Guyana away to foreign investors for peanuts. There seems to be a mad rush to get this Omai project moving. But have we analyzed the previous operations of Omai? Have we done a post-audit to examine how beneficial this investment was to Guyana? Do we want to make the same mistakes again? How come Omai is interested again when I have heard Mr McLean repeat at several forums that they did not make a profit?
We now have a huge tailing pond that is cyanide polluted for the next 100 years. Do we want to have another one of these sitting in the middle of our natural rainforest? Why isn’t there a national consultation similar to that held for the EPA? After all, this project has serious implications for our environment, Amerindians, and other stakeholders.
Yours faithfully,
Vincent Ferreira
