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Chinese Bauxite Co. installs additional 4MW to expand operations
…as Bharrat makes first visit to large scale operations since taking office
Kaieteur News – Chinese mining company, Bosai Minerals Group (Guyana) Inc., is currently installing an additional four megawatts (MW) of electricity at its Region Ten operations, bringing its total installed capacity some 21MW, in order to facilitate expanded operations.
The company currently generates some 17MW of electricity to power its operations.
Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, (centre) listening to some company officials during the site visit.
The disclosure was made when Minister with responsibility for the Natural Resources Sector, Vickram Bharrat, visited Bosai—one of Guyana’s largest mining operations—for the first time since taking office almost a year ago.
During the visit on Tuesday last, it was noted that in anticipation of the increased demand for electrical power when the new kilns are in operation and the rapidly growing Linden community due to the Government’s house lot drive, the company is in the process of installing an additional 2 MAN Gensets.
This would add a further 4MW of operating capacity.
The information was had when the team visited the site’s power plant, which has an operating generating capacity of about 17 MW of power, utilising six Wartsila and four Cummins Gensets.
It was noted that the Bosai Power Plant does supply electrical power for the company’s operations as well as for the Linden Community, which currently utilises about 10MW at peak.
The visiting party included members from the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, during its tour of the company’s two Dust Collectors at its Refractory Kilns #13 and #14.
Bosai’s General Manager, Eric Yu, told the team that the Dust Collectors were constructed at a cost of approximately US$8M and was commissioned in September 2013 by the then Minister of Natural Resources, Robert Persaud.
The team during the visit to the site were also taken on a tour of the construction location of the new Refractory Kiln #15 and the new Dryer Kiln #16, which is ongoing and is expected to be completed in the new year.
The company is said to employ some 600 locals.
Speaking to the expansion of the company’s operations, the General Manager used the opportunity to affirm that the investment demonstrates Bosai’s confidence in the Guyanese economy and workforce.
Minister Bharrat at the conclusion of the visit to the Bauxite Company asserted that his visit was to have a first-hand look at the operations and that Government embraces development and investment, and he “was very impressed with Bosai’s work.”
The company had found itself in hot water early last year when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), on January 10, last, halted production and other operations at the Chinese-owned company, following a breach in their tailings pond.
The breach was said to have caused several houses down-slope in the Linden community of Noitgedacht to be flooded with a red bauxite-type wastewater, which can be harmful to humans.
The company was later fined $1M—a second sanction imposed on the bauxite company within a month, the first dating back to December 24, 2019 when the company was immediately charged for discharging wastewater into the Kara Kara Creek.
The EPA arrived at its $1M maximum fine based on what is stipulated by the country’s legislation.
Earlier that year the company had also come under scrutiny over royalties being paid to the country.
This publication had reported at the time that Guyana received royalty for the first time that year to the tune of US$3M since the company commenced operations locally.
The company, which came here in the latter half of the 2000s, is operating the Government’s bauxite facilities in Linden, Region Ten.
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