Dear Editor,
It is clear that Prime Minister Samuel Hinds is under severe pressure to deliver the ‘six-months notice’ requirement before alluvial mining can commence. The real question is who is bringing this pressure to bear on our Prime Minister and why?
I am most pleased that the miners have taken a firm stance on this six-months issue with their most clear statement to date – you push us, it will awaken our political consciousness. This issue will clearly cause the PPP to lose votes in Regions 1,7,8,9 and 10, so let them try.
Those with environmental common sense will tell you that the GGMC has to be empowered and resourced to better regulate the industry. That is the pertinent issue. This 6-months notice period is being imposed on the miners in a dictatorial fashion. We in the AFC do not support it and think it is an absurd public policy. We in the AFC believe that all miners must be called upon to restore any area they damage, but this front-end, dilly-dallying strategy being promoted by the PPP is clearly ill-conceived. This is the DNA of the Jagdeo regime, however, they make it up as they go along.
I plead with the Prime Minister to let good sense prevail.
This is not the way the Alliance For Change (AFC) will go about developing this industry. The AFC recognizes that the mining sector is a very valuable contributor to our economy and therefore must be protected and improved within sound environmental parameters. The AFC believes that our natural resources must be developed in a sustainable, environmentally conscious manner for the benefit of all Guyanese, especially our Indigenous family. That is why the AFC will:
• review all legislation and regulations in the mining sector to improve the performance and monitoring of the industry;
• provide Indigenous people added rights over their land;
• update the national mineral maps to drive more targeted mining, thus preserving more areas for environmental purposes;
• provide a 5% exclusion for all gold and diamond mining areas with respect to the LCDS agreements;
• establish a gold refinery and a jewellery industry at Bartica and make it an economic free zone thus creating thousands of new jobs in the mining sector;
• provide special training to all small miners to better preserve the environment;
• abolish this foolish 6-months notice period and place more emphasis on monitoring the activities of miners and mandating them to restore the old areas before they can secure new land claims;
• establish a powerful Ministry of Energy, Natural Resources, Forestry and Environment to fully oversee all policies in energy development, natural resources, forestry and the environment in a very coordinated manner, leveraging the synergies from this process.
Maybe this is a good ministry under an AFC government for a Navin Chandarpal or a William Woolford. Are we getting a clearer idea of how broad-minded the next AFC government will be, since we firmly believe Guyana cannot develop without the diaspora community with their talent and other resources and the professionals at home regardless of their political persuasion? All aboard!
Yours faithfully,
Sasenarine Singh
