A $50 million investment in the start up of a metal and fabrication workshop is the latest venture in Linden and it has employed some 25 persons from the area.
JB Metals and Fabrication Workshop was officially commissioned on Friday at what was once known to most Lindeners as the Railroad Workshop.
The workshop is owned and managed by Sri Lankan-born Joseph Bhaskaran and commenced operations in Linden approximately three months ago. JB Metals has been purchasing scrap metals locally and internationally for the manufacturing of impellers, hammers and dredge equipment for gold mining. It also specializes in steel fabrication.
Described as a watershed in the life of Linden, the establishment at its present location sits at the crossroads in the mining industry and provides vital support for mining industries which before time were importing spare parts from Brazil and China. In conceptualising the business, its owner looked at utilising scraps from the bauxite industry at Linden to construct usable items as opposed to exporting the scraps.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, who was on hand to perform the ceremonial cutting of the ribbon and unveiling of the plaque, challenged the company to keep expanding noting that success brings with it some challenges. “…But you need to become more nimble and ready to change… It is time that Linden got out of the feeling of victimhood and moved on… Linden has a great future.”
Hinds said he was motivated to facilitate the new company consequent to a visit to another country where there were very large scrap yards.
Bhaskaran told the audience that he is very optimistic that the industry would expand in a very short time and would see the staff doubling or tripling because of the adaptability of the present staff. He said he is currently exploring the possibility of constructing excavator bucket dredges for sale in the gold and diamond mining industry.
“We would stay on the right side and do the best we know,” he said.
Bhaskaran said that at present his largest customer was CB&R Mining, while he is doing some level of business with Japarts, Kassim’s Store among others. “We are looking for additional markets because we are confident that we have the capacity to supply a much larger market,” he said.
He credits much of his success to his wife and son, who he said have been the backbone to the company. Bhaskaran who has been in Guyana for the past 20 years made his first investment in a Ice Factory and Fish Plant in Berbice. “The mode of transporting the fishes was not feasible so I had to close that and then we went to the East Bank three years ago. We are the ones who build the sand port for the government recently,” he said. Though his previous attempts did not yield the expected outcome, he is positive this latest investment in Linden is the “cream on the cake”.
Chief Executive officer of Linmine Secretariat Horace James said the new establishment is utilizing one five workshops which once played a key role in the bauxite industry. “It was a task of the Linmine Secretariat was to try to persuade investors to come to these workshops,” he said. The secretariat was successful in securing the first investor, Bi Shan Lin, a lumber/sawmilling operation, to make good use of what was once the Green Construction Camp. The second, the former Heed workshop, is now occupied by three investors – a shoe manufacturer, a farming entity and a sawmilling operation. Bhaskaran took the third and the remaining two yet to be utilized are approximately nine miles outside Linden and have access to reliable electricity and water.
Chairman of the Linden Salvation Council Phillip Bynoe, a close associate of Bhaskaran, took the opportunity to appeal to the government through Hinds and head of Go-Invest Geoffrey DaSilva to consider establishing a regime whereby Linden, being a depressed area, is facilitated in the consideration of duty-free concessions for the importation of needed scrap metal for this new establishment and others of similar nature.
