Responsible mining and enforcement

(BUSINESS EDITORIAL)

If it seems as though fingers are frequently pointed at the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) over the surfeit of harmful practices  in the gold-mining sector that continue to injure the physical health of the host communities and damage the physical environment, that is only because it is the GGMC – in the final analysis – that is responsible for enforcing the regulations that govern mining practices.

And while, from all accounts  the GGMC would appear to be up against it in terms of its lack of capacity to effectively police the country’s far-flung mining regions, that fact does not absolve the Commission of the consequences of its shortcomings.

Of course, we concede the point made by World Wildlife Fund Country Director Dr. Patrick Williams that the GGMC alone cannot be expected to police mining practices and that the other stakeholders – including the host communities and the miners themselves – have roles to play in this regard.

The problem with this argument is that whenever it is made the host communities respond by pointing to what they say is a lack of any real clout in the sector. As far as the miners themselves are concerned the fact of the matter is that some of them have been guilty of such gross malpractices that it would be foolhardy, to say the least, to rely on them to play a policing role; so that at the end of the day the GGMC remains the only ‘reliable’ policeman in the sector. 

In recent years the Commission has been confronted with a renewed surge of fortune hunters in the interior seeking to take advantage of better gold prices. This development has not – as far as we are aware – been attended by a corresponding increase in the resources available to the GGMC, and at any rate, Dr. Williams argues, the GGMC will be unable – even with greater resources and with the best will in the world – to police all or even most of the country’s mining operations.

On the other hand, even if we accept that the GGMC is doing its best in a less than ideal situation we still cannot overlook the evidence that large numbers of people and the physical environment are being harmed by prevailing mining practices and that little if anything is being done about it. Dr. Williams concedes, for example that there are scientific studies that have been done in mining communities that provide clear evidence of the presence of high levels of mercury in the environment and in humans. Moreover, there is no evidence, up to this time that several years after these studies were done there has been any serious medical intervention to attend to the possible health-related issues.

There are also cases in which the turbidity of water sources in mining communities has meant that the food and water resources of the host communities have been compromised and stories are told of open pits that simply remain uncovered.

Of course, we have long come to terms with the fact that mining as an economic activity is here to stay and that however much we try some amount of environmental damage will accrue from mining. This truism, however, cannot be taken to mean that the damage that results from mining activity must be allowed to go on unabated because of the importance of gold to the economy.

 Whenever the issue is raised in the media the official response is that the situation is being exaggerated though it is difficult to exaggerate the digging up of roadways and ripping out of pipelines as was the case at Salbora or attempts to divert the course of a river as was the case at a former Omai mine site more recently. The vast majority of these types of incidents usually go unreported and however offended the GGMC might feel when fingers are pointed at the agency the fact of the matter is that all is far from well in the mining sector.

During a recent interview with the Stabroek Business Canadian High Commissioner to Guyana Charles Court made the point that Canadian mining companies had had positive experiences in the Guyana mining sector since those companies had come here prepared to work with the government and with communities given their orientation in Canada where the mining community is still pursuing initiatives to ensure the protection of the rights of Canada’s “first citizens.” The point about the High Commissioner’s observation is that compliance with mining regulations and respect for the environment derives from an understanding among the miners themselves of the environmental and human welfare considerations that attend the mining sector.

Education, therefore, is at least part of the answer and another point made by the Canadian High Commissioner was that countries with mining sectors could learn from one another in terms of environmentally sustainable mining practices. In this regard the recent Mining Forum on the Guianas saw the WWF endorse and agree to support a recommendation made by the Prime Minister that a local mining delegation travel to Jamaica to observe backfilling practices in that country’s bauxite industry. One expects too that in the context of increasing technical cooperation between Guyana and Canada – to say nothing about the various Canadian gold-mining companies currently conducting mining exploration in Guyana – there are opportunities for collaboration designed to ensure that local miners are at least aware of their responsibilities to the environment and the host communities. 

Earlier this week the GGMC announced that it was seeking to shift gears – from its current position of warning miners guilty of transactions to stepping up prosecutions. That is as it should be since there is good reason to believe that  there will always be miners who will remain indifferent to the efforts of the GGMC to sensitize them to the importance of responsible mining. The other point, of course, is that the GGMC’s proclamation will impress no one unless it is backed with manifest evidence of an enhanced capacity to carry out its threat.

The other point to be made of course – and this point was made by attornery-at-law David James during a recent interview published in the Guyana Review – has to do with the fact that local mining laws and regulations have done sorry little to ensure that a measure of the returns from the sector go towards critical development and employment-generating initiatives in the host communities. James goes further, pointing out in his interview that what the gold-mining industry has perhaps to do is to shine a light – so to speak – on the powerlessness of the host communities.

We agree with James about ensuring that the argument is not reduced to a trade-off between the economic benefits to be derived from the gold-mining sector and the protection of human life and physical environment in the host communities since the simple fact of the matter is that that approach essentially amounts to mortgaging the future of the country to the immediate term economic  gains that accrue from gold mining.

Part of the answer lies in promoting a greater sense of responsibility among the miners through the kinds of training initiatives that are being undertaken by the GGMC with the support of the WWF. At the same time fora like the recent Guianas mining conference and the opportunities that derive from initiatives like working with Canadian mining companies and learning from the experiences of countries like Jamaica can also contribute to refashioning local mining practices to render them more environmentally friendly.

Of course, there is also the need to follow the lead of countries like Canada in dealing with the economic rights and, specifically the mineral rights of the indigenous people of the mining communities by engaging them in discussions on sub-surface rights and encouraging host community mining enterprises that place emphasis on green gold mining.

These initiatives, however, do not gainsay the role of the GGMC as the watchdog of the sector. Here again we are told that the WWF is supporting the GGMC in the training of its officers towards the end of enhancing the Commission’s capacity to enforce the mining regulations more effectively. And while its recent declared commitment to reading the riot act against delinquent miners is to be welcomed one can say no more at this stage than that the proof of the pudding is in the eating.