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Miners express fresh fears over new measures for industry

Nov 26, 2010 News

– Advertisement warns of foreign threat to sovereignty

As government considers new measures for the gold and diamond mining industry, a number of prominent players on Tuesday, last, called on President Bharat Jagdeo to rethink the move.
In a full page ad in the Kaieteur News earlier this week, five miners maintained that the measures will close all alluvial mining in two years, if the recommendations of the Special Land Use Committee (SLUC) are implemented.
According to miners, including Patrick Perreira, T. Junor, T. Adams, R. Khan and T. Singh, the “draconian” mining regulations will virtually close the industry down leaving only hard rock operations which are mainly done by foreign-owned companies.
“Mr. President, if you allow these “Impossible to Mine Conditions” to be implemented, it will gradually take its toll on all of our alluvial miners, and close all alluvial mining operations, in under two years, leaving only hard rock mining operations…”
Stressing that the outcome is likely to be catastrophic, the miners pointed to a very real possibility of “massive poverty escalation, an unfortunate increase in social degradation by especially the women habitants of interior villages…”
The measures could also lead to crime increase and “an exodus of its population”, the likes of which have not been seen before.
It has not been the first time that miners have placed ads in a display of concern over the measures which were first announced last December.
In January, miners effectively shut down Bartica for a day, and a government-appointed committee led by Minister of Public Works, Robeson Benn, met with stakeholders in an attempt to work out the issues.
At the top of the miners’ concerns was a proposal to give six months notice before commencing operations.
However, in February, in the face of widespread pressure, President Jagdeo met with the miners at the International Convention Centre where he extended the life of the committee and mandated it to thrash out the concerns.
According to the full page ad, a proposal to allow miners up to 4% accumulative acreage exemption should be seriously considered by the President; a proposal that was made over a year now.
“This tiny 4% is equal to 1.6M acres and will take our alluvial miners 160 years to work it out, while every five years the re-growth will cause the forest canopy to be completely covered in the worked out areas,” the ad assured.
Regarding fears of the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), the five miners said the yearly worked acreage area is less than 10,000 acres, a “tiny 0.0256% of the entire forest area of 40 million acres, and cannot in any way whatsoever, affect the success” of the programme.
There have been fears from the miners that the greater oversight from the LCDS program will seriously affect mining operations, a charge that has been denied by government.
“You cannot allow any foreign country to dictate to you/Guyana what mining conditions you must implement, or else it would mean that they are taking control of Guyana’s sovereignty, more so of that of our forest and mining areas…”
Recently, the Special Land Use Committee, after nine months of works, completed its report on new measures for the industry and have submitted it to government for approval.

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