Dear Editor,
The government is setting out a proposal that miners be given six months’ notice prior to commencing mining. (SN, January 1, 2010). The Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) will be debating the issue at their special meeting.
President Bharrat Jagdeo is proposing to increase the coordination between the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) and the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC). This could see a paradigm shift in policy with overarching veto powers vested with the Forestry Commission over future mining decisions.
Far-reaching enabling legislation and stringent rules will also be required to meet the conditions as set out by the Guyana-Norway MOU. President Jagdeo is facing the unenviable task of devising a workable LCDS to cope with the undertakings which he has signed up to under the MOU. The funding is target based and will only flow when set benchmarks are met and deemed by the independent consultants to have been achieved. On the ground, this will mean that the necessary infrastructure would need to be set up before the REDD scheme could be up and running. Foreign-policy makers, consultants, admin staff and field personnel will have to be recruited and housed in Georgetown as necessary.
The REDD project will be controlled by the UNFAO, CIFOR, plus there will be the relevant legislation, policies and processes in Guyana. This forum will also develop transparency, rules, forest governance, accountability and enforcement. Little is known about how this forum will be mobilized to fulfil and uphold such noble obligations as required by the MOU. The government, however, seems bold enough, indicating that it means business by attempting to slap a six-month’s notice on new mining operations.
In the meantime the GGDMA will be debating whether the proposed six-month’s notice will be acceptable to them and their members. The GGDMA has already made calls for the exemption of 7% of Guyana’s total forested area, amounting to just over one million hectares for small and medium-scale gold and diamond miners to mine under present alluvial conditions. The claim is that as much as 80% of small and medium scale miners will be forced out with the government proposal according to Patrick Pereira, a former President of the GGDMA. However this is the least of the President Jagdeo’s problems.
His biggest challenge is about how to stamp out the large-scale, unregulated and uncontrolled mining activities on our territory by the Brazilians and the multi-nationals. Prime Minister Sam Hinds had had first-hand knowledge of the devastating pollution left behind by the Brazilians following a visit last year to the Barlow Landing in the Mazaruni area, according to miner Stanislaus Jardine. In a report published by SN on July 10, he claimed that out of the list of the top 40 registered producers in 2008, no Brazilian mining operation was listed, and 80% of local gold production in 2008 was from registered Guyanese operations.
Afro Alfonso another former President of the GGMA also noted, according to the same report, that out of some 9000 dredges operating in Guyana only 271 were licensed and registered as at 2008. The Brazilians with better mechanical and technical capabilities, were able to produce a significant amount of gold which was not sold locally, according to Stanislaus Jardine.
300,000 ounces of gold is the official gold production figure for 2009. It is now left to the imagination as to the staggering amount of gold that the 9000 dredges could produce and which coud vanish into thin air – let alone the devastating pollution and mercury poisoning that the Guyanese people must face. What is the real purpose of the mining industry and where is all the invisible gold revenue going?
Multi-nationals are able to wield immense influence over the government, and there is no transparency in their operations. Indeed they do not welcome openness and reject inspections into their activities. A Freedom of Information Act is a primary requisite that would allow concerned citizens to know what is happening in their name.
Instead of tackling such fundamental issues, the government seems far more competent at choking-off advertising funding to the free media when they have ventured out to expose government weaknesses and subservience to outside agencies and companies. It seems that the government has no capacity or willingness to protect the primary sovereignty of Guyana, especially when it comes to the security of its most valuable of resources, gold. The Brazilians are allowed to mine gold with impunity, with little or no intervention from the government. The government is now hanging its hopes on their LCDS to save face, and goaded by the carrot of promised funding held in front of their eyes by the Norwegians. At least the LCDS holds out the short-sighted prospect of curbing the devastating pollution from forestry and mining, provided the government’s cart can finally take to the road with much goading in the course of 2010.
Yours faithfully,
Mac Mahase
