BK transfers gold, diamond prospecting licences to Sun & Sand Group

Jul 29, 2014 News

– India-based Company coy avoids background checks
Indian-based Sun and Sand Group of Companies, which is chaired and promoted by Rajesh “Lucky” Satija, recently signaled its intentions to make a US$54M investment in Guyana’s hotel industry. It was also quietly handed two Prospecting Licences last year.

Chairman of Indian based Sun& Sand Group of Companies Rajesh “Lucky” Satija

BK International, one of Guyana’s biggest construction companies, transferred the two licenses to Sun and Sands which allows for the exploration of gold and other minerals.
BK International was later retained as the local contractor for the multi-million dollar hotel at Turkeyen.
Prior to revelations of the transfer of the licences, Director of the Sun and Sand Hotel, Bhushan Chandna, had told this publication that the company “did not” have a Prospecting License at the moment but had applied.
He had said that the persons responsible for the company’s interest in mining would be coming to Guyana soon. He was unable to answer any other question in that regard since it is not his “baby,” he said.
A Prospecting Licence is a permit, issued by the mining regulators, Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), which allows the holder (the licensee) to explore for minerals. With this license, several tax breaks and concessions are granted.
Before Prospecting Licenses are given to “big foreign companies” a due diligence or background check is suppose to be conducted on the entity to ensure compliance with Guyana’s Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act.
Because the licence was transferred, Sun and Sand, in effect, avoided the mandatory due diligence process.
The application process for a Prospecting Licence includes several steps and a number of requirements.
These include the company providing proof of financial and technical capacity and a work programme and budget for the first year of activities.
According to a Mining Sector in Guyana 2012 report, the application is processed on satisfactory submission of the required documents and if recommended, by GGMC, will be sent to the Official Gazette for publication.
If there are no objections to the grant, a Ministerial approval is sought. The term of the Prospecting Licence is for three years with two rights of renewal each year.
The obligations of the licensee include quarterly technical reports on its activities and an audited financial statement to be submitted by June 30 of the following year for the previous year’s expenditure.

Brian Tiwari

Prospecting Licence properties are subject to ad hoc monitoring visits by technical staff of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC).
Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)’s Shadow Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources, had recently warned that large foreign companies seem to have a “calculated approach” when it comes to Guyana’s mining and forestry sectors.
The Member of Parliament said that some foreign businesses would attach themselves to local investors who would have done all the groundwork to acquire benefits and concessions, pretending it would seem, to be just a harmless partnering foreign investor. But the hidden motive is to eventually take over the business and expand.
Roopnaraine, who is a member of the Natural Resources Sectoral Committee of Parliament, deems this to be abusive behaviour by “big foreign companies.”
He said that consultations will be pursued with the Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, Robert Persaud, to make the “necessary amendments” to the relevant laws to close this loophole.
These include to the Mining and Forestry Acts.
Eventually, the “big companies”, he said, end up “gobbling up the benefits and concessions enjoyed by the local investors and sooner or later they take it over.”