An August 2019 document prepared by the Russian Aluminum giant, RUSAL, the majority shareholder in the local company, Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc. (BCGI) has painted a dismal picture of its likely long-term future here on account of what it says is the poor quality of the bauxite being mined here and its lack of competitiveness on the international market. And the assessment of the authors of the document concludes that were RUSAL to wind up its BCGI operations “it could easily find alternative bauxite on the market” to feed its Ukraine or Ireland refineries.
The document which appeared to surface out of ongoing wages and salaries negotiations involving the management of BCGI and the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU) asserts that were the Russian company were to quit its BCGI operations, not only would the mine be “permanently closed “ resulting in job losses for Guyanese but that there would be a knock-on effect for local communities which it says “will suffer due to vanished BCGI tax payments.”
