$5M goldmining reclamation deal inked

Feb 11, 2010 News

Rickford Vieira(L), Regional Goldmining Pollution Abatement Coordinator and Edward Shields, Executive Director of GGDMA

… mined out areas can cost up $1M per hectare to fix-GGDMA

A mined out area outside of Mahdia has been earmarked to become a model reclamation site following a deal between the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners’ Association (GGDMA) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
The $5M agreement was signed at the WWF Queenstown Office yesterday and will become a source of much information for miners and others who wants to learn more how to revegetate mined area.
Yesterday, WWF handed over $2.8 million as a first tranche.
WWF’s pollution expert, Rickford Vieira, said that it was the second major collaboration of this nature with miners following the completion of project on tailings management in April.
The project area, four miles outside of Mahdia, a key interior mining community, will help build the capacity of GGDMA and its members to better understand the process on how to reclaim the land after mining would have been exhausted.
Vieira noted that miners sometimes are not all to be blamed for the condition of some mining areas since many of them simply do not know.
The model will provide insights into cost effective ways which mining areas can be reclaimed.
Not only will miners be able to visit, but there will be nurseries of trees and plants set up, the monitoring of plant species, possible planting of fruit trees and soil sampling.
GGDMA’s Executive Director, Edward Shields, lauding the work of WWF in assisting, explained that several other initiatives have been funded by that body. Miners were even taken to French Guiana to examine mining practices there.
While the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) should really be spearheading the move, the reality is that the regulatory body is lacking heavily in resources with many quilifed people leaving the country.
GGDMA’s Vice President, Charles Da Silva, noted that last year’s gold production proved that it was one-third of the country’s revenues. If mining is banned, everybody will lose, he said.
The officials yesterday estimated that the cost to reclaim mined out areas can go up to $1M per hectare depending on location.
Under new mining laws, miners are expected to provide a plan on how to revegetate the affected areas.
Overtime, however, miners who have to put down a $100,000 bond before being issued permits for possibilities of damage to the land, have preferred to leave the bond and not collect it after tying up operations since it was cheaper than spending thousands to fix the problems.
But many are known to treat the bond as a tax and refuse to undertake reforestation efforts. However some have been banned after being warned and cited for previous violations.
The miners’ association supported this action and now wants all miners to heed the environmental regulations.