Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman a week ago used the forum of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry Annual Gala Dinner to tag what he described as “activities of grave disrepute” in the mining sector and to place stakeholders on notice that, going forward, the administration will be taking aim at the slew of irregularities that have persisted in the sector, albeit against a backdrop of official failure, over the years.
Trotman’s announcement bolstered government’s, which made no secret of the intention to rely on sustained growth in gold production to continue to serve as an economic bulwark in the face of immediate uncertainties in the performances of the traditional money-earners.
On Friday evening last, Trotman spelt out some aspects of the downside of what has become the country’s key economic sectors. He also pointed to “the loss of life and limb” resulting chiefly from what official reports have contended is what, in many instances, a seemingly callous regard for the stringent safety standards that ought to apply in the gold recovery process and instances of illegal mining that have reduced some operations to a circumstance of lawlessness.
There was, however, much in the way of worrisome activities and serious official weaknesses in the corrective status quo to which the minister did not allude in his presentation, including the disturbing dichotomy between the proliferation of serious crimes in some interior locations and the failure of government, over many years, to install a law-enforcement infrastructure to match the scale of the problem.
As Trotman put it in his address, these problems “continue to plague the industry and dim the light of its tremendous success.” And while he committed his ministry to doing “much more in 2017 to ensure compliance and safe practices for the well-being of the thousands of men and women who depend on mining for the development of themselves and families,” watchers of the industry will be aware that official promises to aggressively tackle the problems facing the mining sector have, over the years, been repeated with monotonous regularity but have remained unmatched by action.
Government has remained undaunted by the protestations of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA), including recent charges that the 2017 budget was inimical to the interests of the mining sector. In his address, Trotman paraded the “very dominant performance by gold,” which he said had occurred “despite a significant drop in gold prices on the world market and challenges in the mining sector.”
Success in the industry, the ministry said, had been due chiefly to “gold production figures continually rising in 2016.” Nor did Trotman neglect to mention that it was the local small and medium-sized mining operations rather than the two large external investors in the sector, Troy Resources and Guyana Goldfields that accounted for “almost two-thirds of this production.”
With the overall 2016 production figure having already topped 600,000 ounces, gold is flying high even as the rest of the extractive sector continues to struggle.
Against the backdrop of the bauxite industry’s centenary celebrations, Trotman asserted that a point had been reached where if the industry was to reassert itself as a major player in the Guyana economy, government would have to “implement measures to transform the industry, utilizing new technologies” in order to increase production figures and value-added products. Government, Trotman said, had responded to the recognition that “the industry is in need of creativity and innovation” by convening a Bauxite Sectoral Review Committee “to assess the industry and offer recommendations for the feasibility of an Alumina Plant.” The committee, according to Trotman, is expected to make key recommendations for “regulatory and other changes to enhance the GGMC’s operations vis-à-vis bauxite exploration and production and revisit the age-old question about the feasibility of an alumina refinery.”
Government, Trotman said was pinning its hopes on the sector “do(ing) things better than we did for 100 years,” including stimulating employment in an economically deprived and socially eroding community.
Mindful, meanwhile, to keep the administration’s focus on environmental awareness at the forefront of public policy Trotman said that boosting the fortunes of the bauxite industry, going forward, will be underpinned by “sustainability and the replenishment of the earth” so that “reclamation of land mined whether for bauxite or other minerals is now integral to Guyana’s overall development… No more can craters of discoloured water, breeding grounds for mosquitoes, and the impression that we hurriedly and randomly dug up our land, be allowed to jarringly define our landscape.”
But try as he did, Trotman was unable to assuage the uncertainty that now hangs over the forestry sector in the wake of the disappearance of two important external investors, Barama and Baishanlin, from the sector. Loss of investment is, however, only one of the challenges confronting the sector. In his address, Trotman alludes to the importance of focusing on value-added production “in order to develop a green economy and obtain greater value” for the country’s forest resources. He threw out an invitation to companies seeking to provide value-added products to “invest further in Guyana and gain the benefit of favourable concessionary arrangements with the Government of Guyana.”
