The Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) today celebrates the 30th anniversary of its establishment against the backdrop of myriad challenges associated with the administration of an industry which, over the years, has assumed growing significance in the Guyana economy.
Over time the Commis -sion has been hard-pressed to effectively superintend a continually expanding mining sector which, apart from the sheer size of the terrain that it covers is also beset by challenges of its own.
One such challenge is that of ensuring that the industry conforms to increasingly strict mining laws that frown on excesses for which many local miners are known, including the violation of lands belonging to Amerindian communities, the mismagement of pits which are often ‘worked’ and left open to become mosquito pits and what is often the indiscriminate use of mercury in the gold production process.
It is no secret that these problems have all become commonplace in an industry where increases in world market prices for gold has created what Prime Minister Samuel Hinds has described as “a mining frenzy.” The apportionment of blame on the GGMC for the excesses of miners has been more than a little unfair. The truth is that it has nowhere near adequate resources to cope with the ‘gold rush,’
The mercury use problem has now become part of a broader swathe of pressure that has been placed on the mining sector internationally to conform to ‘cleaner’ mining practices, and while local miners have long baulked at talk of a mercury-free mining process, Head of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Assoc-iation (GGDMA) Edward Shields said recently that miners were now prepared to embrace alternative mining methods once these prove equally effective.
In May, during an interview with this newspaper, Acting Commissioner of the GGMC William Woolford outlined initiatives that were being undertaken by the Commission in collaboration with agencies like the World Wildlife Fund and GENCAP to enhance capacity to effectively administer the industry.
The initiatives include, crucially, training for officials charged both with making inspection visits to mining areas and with providing a measure of environmental oversight. Recently, there has also been signs of an even closer, more collaborative relationship between the miners association and the state-run administrative body. Shields disclosed recently that the two agencies had been involved in joint inspection visits to mining areas. The WWF, particularly, has been pushing the notion of mercury-free mining, pointing to what it says has been its successes in neighbouring French Guiana.
At least one group of Guyanese mining officials have visited French Guiana in recent months to observe mining practices there.
GGMC’s anniversary co-incides with the start of Mining Month which begins tomorrow and both the Commission and the mining sector as a whole are expected to come under critical scrutiny.
A GGMC-organised August 24-28 mining forum is expected to cover themes ranging from the rationalization of the mining sector in the context of government’s recently promulgated Low Carbon Development Strategy to issues related to the development of the petroleum sector in Guyana.
Concerns have been expressed by the local miners over the likely impact of the LCDS on the industry and earlier this week President Bharrat Jgdeo met with representatives of both the miners and the Commission to discuss the issue. ‘Selling’ the LCDS to the mining community would appear to be the GGMC’s next major challenge.
Stabroek Business has learnt that the high-profile mining conference will be targeting small scale miners who, while contributing significantly to ensuring that the sector remains on course to meet and perhaps even exceed its target for this year, have often been guilty of serious environmental transgressions.
While the GGMC has been loathe to admit it, capacity deficiencies in terms of the effective policing of the sector has been its Achillies Heel.
There is, however, evidence that the Commission is seeking not only to build capacity but also to build relationshiops with the miners and their Association in an effort to secure compliance with standards through volunteerism.
The GGMC forum will bring together a number of players from the mining industry including Bosai, Rusal, Strata Gold, IAM Gold and the petroleum giant Exxon.
