Discontent over the government’s handling of the mining sector has seen the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Associa-tion (GGDMA) and the nascent mining syndicates joining forces to boycott this year’s mining week, which began on Sunday.
The decision, communicated to the public via a joint press release yesterday and the listing of a stream of grievances, could be seen as a serious for the APNU+AFC administration, which had tried to cultivate the mining syndicates as a foil for the GGDMA. The two mining groups also took aim at President David Granger, saying that he had failed to follow his own advice as it relates to the divide in the hinterland that he had complained of.
Last year and earlier this year, the GGDMA had issued strong condemnations of what it said was the government’s failure to act on important areas. Around this time, Minister in the Ministry of Natural Resources Simona Broomes began organising mining syndicates around the theme that small miners were being exploited by the larger miners in the GGDMA. Months after, the members of the syndicates themselves began attacking the government over ring-fenced mining areas and the size of the blocks being allocated.
