Is El Dorado “the lost city of gold” in Guyana? Is El Dorado “the lost city of gold” in Essequibo, the Cinderella county of Guyana? Throughout the centuries, many adventurers were driven by the passion that surrounded the enduring tale of a city of gold. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Europeans believed that somewhere in the New World there was a place of immense wealth known as El Dorado. Their searches for this treasure wasted countless lives, drove at least one man to suicide, and put another man under the executioner’s ax. This dream city of El Dorado shifted geographical locations until finally it simply meant a source of untold riches somewhere in the Americas.
On Thursday March 24, 2011, a Canadian company, Guyana Goldfields, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange made a presentation that might provide an answer. To a standing room only audience of government officials, diplomats, the private sector and civil society at the Pegasus hotel, Guyana Goldfields, under the banner of “Creating Opportunities, Helping Communities, Caring for the Environment, Proudly Building a World-Class Mine” unveiled a gold find of more than 6.7 million ounces at their Aurora site next to the Cuyuni River. The company which has been exploring in Guyana since 1996, having spent over US$ 86 million dollars during the last 15 years, in a very graphic power point presentation highlighted that the gold find was predominantly underground. The significance
