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The battle lines have been drawn

Feb 09, 2010 Editorial

The miners are about to realise their importance. This week the Land Use Committee will be meeting with President Bharrat Jagdeo to once and for all determine how the miners would use the locations and reservations provided as mining concessions.
Mining has been going on for years and in recent times, the loggers have been claiming that these miners have been doing more harm than good.
They accused them of indiscriminate clearing of the forest and leaving the area worse than they found it.
They also accused the miners of pollution and of creating conditions that were definitely environmentally unfriendly, the detriment of what is now being promoted as the low carbon development strategy.
The loggers and other forestry workers are unhappy because they do not have unrestricted use of the land.
They can only clear a certain number of trees per hectare; they must replant to ensure reforestation and they must make notes of the area from which they log. The logs must also be marked.
These forestry workers accuse the miners of simply chopping down trees and creating craters that actually hinder forest growth and it is this that has caused the collision between the miners and the foresters and the government. Each has its own self interest.
But the government is aware of the importance of the miners. Yesterday, during his presentation of the 2010 budget, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh acknowledged that the miners produced the most gold ever.
In his words, gold production was the highest outside the period when Omai was in the industry.
He said that the government is boasting that it is responsible for whatever achievements the miners record. This may very well be the case because there was a time when gold fell to below US$300 per ounce.
This coupled with the high food prices made mining most unattractive.
Two years ago the prices began to soar to levels not seen in decades and this has sparked the kind of invasion that has now brought the miners and the foresters on this collision course.
At the same time the government has signed a memorandum of understanding with Norway that could earn Guyana US$250 million by 2015.
The government is not prepared to lose this money hence the move to impose restrictions. But the miners are now about to co-operate.
This year they say that they are going to produce enough gold to earn $100 billion (US$50 million). This is more money than the Norway memorandum of understanding would yield.
One can therefore imagine the arguments that would occur when these people meet with President Jagdeo. Guyana needs the money but it is arguing that the price of gold may fall while the money from Norway is constant.
The miners are however arguing that they employ thousands of people.
This is a crucial fact because the offshoot is that the people will pay taxes; they will buy food and the vendors of the food will also pay taxes.
There is the view that a compromise position would be arrived at although, given the actions by the miners at this time, such compromise is not on the cards. The days ahead are going to be contentious.
President Jagdeo is not likely to allow the miners to continue as before.
But there is also the issue of monitoring the miners. The Guyana Geology and Mines Commission says that it is employing 200 more rangers. The battle lines have been drawn.

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