Announcing the launch of an investigation, the government yesterday in a press statement warned that miners culpable of illegally purchasing and selling gold to unlicensed dealers/ traders are liable to prosecution and shall be restricted from the mining industry.
The statement made it pellucid that miners are required to sell all gold to licensed gold dealers/ traders or the Guyana Gold Board and that it is illegal to purchase gold without the requisite licence to undertake such activities.
The statement said that “Emanating from a recent analysis and assessment, the Government of Guyana has noted the significant difference between the production of gold and the declaration/ sale of gold to licensed gold dealers, traders, and/ or the Guyana Gold Board”.
Issued through the Ministry of Natural Resources, the statement said that “This is evident from the reduction in gold declaration to date when compared to current mining activities and concomitant investment within the sector”.
In this regard, an investigation has been launched aimed at having those involved in such action face the full force of the law.
The relevant agencies have been tasked with immediate and “condign actions” to ensure that all gold mined is sold to licensed dealers/ traders or the Guyana Gold Board.
Persons in breach of this legal requirement will be prosecuted, and in the case of miners with existing property tenures within the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, they may be in jeopardy of losing such tenures, the statement further admonished.
The previous two governments had promised to address the smuggling of gold but nothing was done. A stunning 2012 theft in Curacao of 476 pounds of the precious metal from Guyana was never properly investigated.
This government has also spoken about the matter but has turned a blind eye to the origin of large caches of gold which have been discovered here. Persons have been prosecuted for theft from these caches but the owners have not faced charges.
The Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) recently expressed concern about falling gold declarations, and cited a number of reasons including competition for labour. It called on the government to step up efforts to curb smuggling of the precious metal.
The GGDMA in a strongly worded statement had noted the recent drop in gold declaration figures from the small and medium scale miners. This, it said, should be expected as the industry has been affected by several factors including the ongoing competition for labour, “driven by the explosion in construction and job opportunities in the oil and gas sector”.
The Mining Association in its statement said “While the entire country is faced with an ongoing labor shortage, the mining sector has been especially hard hit. Workers have been opting out of the sector to work on the coastland where competitive salaries mitigate the risk of interior work. This unpre-cedented worker scarcity has seen the small and medium scale operators struggling to find workers as the industry bears the brunt of the labor shortage in Guyana”.
Currently, it said that several mining outfits are operating at below 50% capacity all the while burdened with a significant rise in overheads due to the jump in the cost of services and supplies such as trucking, groceries etc. This has been compounded over the last three years, with above normal rainfall and the subsequent flooding in mining areas. The GGDMA said that there is also the need to improve minerals accessibility.
The GGDMA said that many of the areas near to existing roads and infrastructure have been depleted and yields are low. New infrastructure is now required to access new areas with high mineralization.
These along with several other factors such as the increase in raiding of miners’ concessions and illegal operations have negatively impacted the industry, it said.
