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Closed Areas Committee a sore issue – GWMO
The non-appointment of a new board for the Closed Areas Committee and the manner in which the committee operates are sore issues that have the Guyana Women Miners’ Organization (GWMO) questioning whether these are deliberate schemes.
In January, Robert Persaud, Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment said that the board for the Closed Areas Committee had expired at the end of 2013. And, like other boards and committees, it was being resuscitated.
However, the Minister has not yet submitted the names of the board members to Cabinet for approval. Persaud said that he will submit the names shortly.
According to Simona Broomes, President of the GWMO, “This is a sore issue…sometimes it crosses your mind that this is deliberate…Because, without the board functioning it holds up the whole process.”
The first Broomes raised this matter was at GWMO’s second anniversary celebrations January last. She said that the GWMO believes that the Closed Areas Committee is biased in the allocation of mining lands, limiting opportunities for small and medium scale miners.
Broomes related that years ago miners could have identified available lands for mining on a map. But now a majority of the land is identified as closed areas, preventing miners from applying for the areas.
Emphasizing what members of the GWMO find unfair, she said that oftentimes the same blocks that are marked as closed areas are awarded to some miners. The explanation behind that is that the miner, perhaps practicing mercury free mining, applied for the blocks.
The application is considered by the Closed Areas Committee, which forwards the recommendations to the Minister for the final say.
According to an Officer of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), in 2007 the Prime Minister signed a document bringing the Closed Areas Committee into being. Every year the committee is expected to be regulated so as to direct its functioning.
But, according to the Officer, this has not been the case. The committee is unregulated. It was noted that GGMC is currently allocating state lands but the Minister has the ultimate say when it comes to lands under the Closed Areas Committee.
The official said that without the Committee Persaud could review the regulation and give out lands.
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