The Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) has been urged to offer its recommendations on the Draft National Mineral Sector Policy Framework and Plan 2019-2029.
Sherwood Lowe, who led the team which designed the plan, issued the call on Wednesday at a GGDMA general members meeting at its North Road headquarters, where he presented on the plan. The document was released to the public last month for feedback.
According to Lowe, since that time recommendations have been received from various organisations around the country.
“The debate still continues even among the members of the drafting committee and so far, since the release of the draft, we have received submissions and feedback from the Guyana Women Miners Organisation (GWMO), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC), the Guyana Gold Board (GGB), the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC), and the feedback so far has been very incisive and there will be some changes to the final draft most likely,” Lowe told the gathering.
Against this background, he said the GGDMA, as a major player in the mining sector, should also be lobbying for its recommendations to be included in the plan. “…So that at the end of the day when the mining policy comes out, a major stakeholder like the GGDMA should be able to say we have asked and we have lobbied for these positions in place. Some we see and some we don’t,” he added.
Lowe noted that the first draft has five broad policies and those five broad policies birthed 32 strategies, which in turn birthed over 100 action measures. “What we have done is we have put the policies, strategies and action measures under an umbrella – Optimising Governance, Optimising Compliance, Optimising Performance,” he said.
By doing so, Lowe noted, a complex policy such as the mining policy can be easily communicated.
He further noted that heavy focus has been placed on small and medium scale miners (SMS), which suggests that they should be seen as an integral and important part of the national mineral sector.
“We are saying that the government’s policy stance must see the SMS subsector as an important and integral part of the national mining industry and there are some concerns whether that stance is firmly entrenched or whether there is wavering towards large scale mining, what are the implications when we become an oil economy and where would SMS mining be. We are saying that it should be an integral part of the sector and economy,” he said.
Lowe also pointed out that the draft committee is proposing that policies for the industry should recognise that SMS are differently positioned financially and technically and therefore a ‘one-size-fits-all’ policy approach is not the best way. As a result, the recommendation was made for miners to be classified based on their technical capabilities and the policy should target specific classes of miners rather than treating the mining sector as one big monolith.
He also noted that duty-free concessions, with respect to the various items and machinery, should be more attuned to the various classes of miners to cater for what they can afford.
The draft also recommends that the government introduces a miners’ assistance scheme and Lowe said that they have since received significant feedback on how such a fund could be set up.
The draft also recommends upgrades for roads to and around hinterland areas.
Lowe said the draft policy also caters for improved mining practices. “The mining policy draft is advocating the continued use of the sluice box but an optimised sluice box,” he said, while noting that the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) had completed a study on the sluice box in 2000.
He also stated that the document is very strong on governance as they feel there is a need for a paradigm shift in governance in the country generally, and in particular with the GGMC. He said there needs to be more transparency, accountability, and efficient systems that facilitate faster business transactions and consulting mechanisms.
Lowe’s presentation was followed by a discussion between him and the miners in attendance on the plan.
