Warring factions and the future of the gold mining industry

Last week’s meeting between President Donald Ramotar and the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) followed what has now become a familiar pattern of the Head of State having to step in to resolve issues between the government and one sector or another rather than  having the matter placed in the hands of the relevant Ministry or state agency.

In this case, of course, the relevant Ministry, the newly created Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, being itself a part of the problem could hardly have been looked to for a solution. As for the relevant state agency, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), its authority has become so eroded in recent months that one wonders about its capacity to solve its own difficulties far less those of the gold mining sector as a whole.

This is not the first time in recent weeks that we have commented on the rift between the mining sector and the state agencies concerned with its administration and we do again not only because the rift appears to be widening but because – as we have   pointed out previously – a great deal is now riding on gold as far as the country’s economy is concerned.

The relationship between the GGDMA and the political administration has grown worse since the advent of the new Ministry. The reasons for this have to do first, with the Association’s perception that the advent of the new Ministry is a manifestation of the government’s intention to exert greater control over an industry that is now Guyana’s best money-earner.

The Ministry, by what is often its altogether uncalled-for assertiveness – downright coarseness in its dealings with the GGMC and its officials – has certainly created the impression that it intends to supersede the agency in the running of the mining sector and the miners are – justifiably in our view – wary of that eventuality.  The government, of course, is responsible for creating an environmental regime that fits in with its low carbon development strategy while allowing for the mining sector to flourish and if the truth be told there are miners who couldn’t give two hoots about the environment and need to be reined in. On the other hand the level of distrust between the GGDMA and the government is now so deep that the latter believes that much of the environmental stringencies being articulated by government including its stated concern for the welfare of the Amerindians is nothing more than a smokescreen for its own designs which – the GGDMA believes – has to do with exerting greater control over the industry.

Over time the confrontation has worsened considerably, arriving at a point where the GGDMA has moved a vote of no confidence in Minister Robert Persaud and is seeking the removal of Major General (ret’d) Joe Singh as Chairman of the GGMC Board for what it says have been “anti-mining” pronouncements on his part.

Nor has President Ramotar’s intervention done much to help since, not only has he paid  little attention to the GGDMA’s vote of no confidence in Minister Persaud but appears to have decided that, like it or not, the Association will have to continue to interface with the Minister as an arbiter in such problems as might affect the sector. Meanwhile, none of the outcomes of the meeting provide even the slightest indication that the President intends to rein in the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry in the context of what appears to be its pursuit of the miniaturization of the GGMC. In the meantime it appears that rather less attention is being given to the serious challenges facing the mining sector including building capacity to strengthen the state’s capacity to monitor miners’ adherence to environmental laws and working collectively to examine options to the use of mercury in gold recovery, issues which, in the longer  term, will have a direct bearing on both the mining sector and the state of the environment, the whole affair amounts to an ill wind that blows none of the stakeholders any good.