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Secret contract exposed… Chinese company pays G$1,000 rent per acre for Guyana’s largest gold claim
Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat (center), re-commissioning the Aurora Gold Mines Processing Plant with the management of Zijin Mining and other officials, last year.
Kaieteur News – A Chinese company – Zijin Mining Group – which acquired the largest gold mines operation in Guyana from Canadian owned Aurora Gold Mines pays US$5 or G$1,000 rental for every acre of land it has in its claim.
The generous concession comes as a result of a contract that was inked in November 2011 with Aurora Gold Mines, then owned by Canadian Guyana Goldfields, and since sold to the Chinese mining group.
The Aurora gold project was first developed by Guyana Goldfields, located in Cuyuni-Mazaruni, as an open-pit and underground mining operation spread across an area of 12 kilometres squared or 2,965 acres.
Under the terms of the contract, upon the granting of the licence, the company would pay in advance the Guyanese equivalent to US$5 per acre for each acre included in the licence, and should the Government reduce those fees, then the company’s obligation to pay the rent would be similarly reduced.
It would mean that the company pays just about G$3M in rent to exercise its right over, and mine for gold from just about 3,000 acres of land. Zijin Mining Group Co. Ltd. successfully acquired the operations of Guyana Goldfields Inc. (GGI) in August last year for US$238M and had committed to employing between 200 and 300 Guyanese workers.
The company in 2019 had begun underground mining before it announced that it was selling its operations.
The feasibility study for the project was completed in January 2013 and first gold was poured in August 2015, while commercial production was achieved in January 2016.
The processing plant was commissioned in October 2015. The first gold sale also took place in the same month before it was later sold in 2019 to the new Chinese owners.
When Zijin Mining Group secured ownership of the Aurora Gold Mines in August last, it had laid off a significant number of local businesses, and by extension, hundreds of Guyanese workers.
The company had engaged contractor, Sinohydro Corporation Limited, for the stripping and mining activities at its mines at Aurora.
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