Once developing at a frenetic pace, the downswing in the gold industry has slowed business in Bartica and residents say that landlordism is one of the main contributors to the slump.
In spite of the current gold prices, if land was available, many small miners would go back into the goldfields to work, several residents told Stabroek News during a visit to the Region Seven mining community on Saturday. “Everywhere you go in Bartica, you can see dredge park up cause small miners ain’t getting place to work,” Mikey Primus, a butcher, told Stabroek News. “The big miners get all the land,” he said.
Another resident explained that several big miners hold large amounts of land and they can decide whether or not a small miner gets to work on the land. He said that usually, the land holder charges a standard fee upfront, which can be around $1 million or more, then an additional percentage on every ounce of
