The Guyana Gold Board (GGB) has rejected a statement by the miners association that the GGB’s ongoing crackdown on dealers and miners over gold declarations is an attempt to criminalize the mining industry.
“The GGB has been mandated by the Board of Directors and the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment to ensure full stakeholders collaboration in fulfilling its obligations for the betterment of the gold trading sector and the wider mining community. The GGB reiterates the recognition of miners, dealers and other stakeholder(s) of the gold sector to the national economy and denounces any effort to impute motives that these ongoing examinations are a matter of criminalization,” the GGB said in a statement sent via the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment.
On Tuesday, incensed at what it said were attempts by government officials to criminalize the entire mining industry over the 20% drop in gold declarations, the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) summoned an emergency meeting for June 26th to address the way forward. In a statement, the GGDMA also pilloried the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment over the resuscitation of an “archaic” law which it says threatens miners and other stakeholders with jail terms of up to five years for failing to sell gold within a specified period. Sources say this law is the Gold Board Act of 1981 which had contained stringent provisions meant to stamp out smuggling and illicit foreign currency transactions during the economic decline of the 1980s. Application
