Latest update May 21st, 2026 12:12 AM
Gold production to date exceeds 2008 production
…increased price a real incentive – Norman McLean
A small scale farmer jigging a battel in search of the precious mineral gold.
Despite a seemingly elusive 2009 target of 300,000 ounces of gold, to date, production is already in excess of last year’s production of 256,000 ounces.
This is according to Major General (Ret’d) Norman Mc Lean, President of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners’ Association, in an address to the final members’ meeting of the Association for this year.
According to Mc Lean, the industry seems to be close to achieving 285,000 ounces of gold this year.
In terms of money, he noted that the association, with the increased production has surpassed the US$203.7M made in 2008. The figure now stands at US$212.4M in the value of gold declared.
He did point out, however, that the industry was fortunate to have gold reaching the level of US$1,000 per ounce and more for the entire month of October. It is now reaching US$1,100 an ounce in November.
“We hope that this will continue to heighten the level of production by our miners and certainly the present gold price is a real incentive.”
McLean stated that it is anticipated that the GGMC and other Government agencies assist the industry in the thrust, through the improvement of the roads and facilities and the streamlining of claims and other regulatory mechanisms.
This, he said, will allow the industry to do much better for the remainder of the year and in the years ahead.
“In that regard, the Association is challenging our members to contribute to a campaign to encourage our miners to sell all their production to the Gold Board. We have already surpassed the value of our production to the Gold Board in 2008, as we continue this stellar performance to the rest of the year and into 2010.”
Despite the creditable performance, McLean warned that gold is still being leaked out of Guyana, finding its way to Suriname and other countries.
It is estimated that at least 20 per cent of the gold produced is lost through smuggling, “Wherever possible we have to plug such leaks.”
Whilst there has been an influx of persons in the small and medium scale mining for gold which may be fuelled by the current attractive prices being paid for the commodity, he said that is important to note that the potential for growth can be accelerated by improvement in recoveries so that from 35 to 40 per cent being recovered.
This could be re-worked year after year on a sliding scale and “we should now have dramatic improvement in the level of recovery from new technologies as well as the use of cyanide so that we gradually replace mercury with these new technologies.”
He did caution that there are those who “wish to put us out of business at a time when we seem to be poised for a major take-off. We therefore, have to invest in our own future by planning innovations to improve the technologies to replace mercury and improve our recoveries. This is an imperative for us and is in our own best interest.”
Mc Lean also made mention of the new large scale operations in Guyana such as Sacre Coeur, IMH Partners, Guyana Gold Fields, Romanex, ETK, Prometheus, Ermina, Raven, Nexus and Everest among others.
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