Pronouncements by Natural Resources Minister Robert Persaud that his ministry will seek to bring more order to the country’s natural resources sector includes an assertion that the administration intends to institute stronger monitoring measures to ensure that the country’s diamond exports comply with the requirements of the United Nations-sanctioned Kimberly Process poses a challenge that may well cause those difficulties confronting the gold industry to appear small by comparison.
The ministry’s challenges as far as the gold industry is concerned are confined, primarily, to ensuring that the country’s commitment to its Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) can unfold in harness with the growth of a gold-mining industry which, given the sustained price increase on the global market, has become an increasingly important player in the local economy. Another key challenge is that of ending or at least reducing what is widely believed to be corrupt transaction involving miners and officials of the state-run Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC). The gold-mining sector may face other problems but those are believed to be among its major ones.
Diamonds present challenges of a different magnitude. Guyana diamond production is miniscule compared with
