Latest update December 16th, 2024 9:00 AM
Chinese Manganese Company flies in Mines Officer to remove Guyanese woman off gold lands
By Shervin Belgrave
Kaieteur News – A Matthews Ridge woman, identified as Anandy Lara, is alleging that the Chinese owned Guyana Manganese Inc. (GMI) played a key role in having her removed from gold mining lands in the community that do not belong to the company.
Kaieteur News understands that GMI reportedly transported a Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) Mines Officer on one of its chartered flights to evict Lara in January 2022.
In a recent interview with Kaieteur News, Lara said that the lands she occupied belongs to James Lowe and is situated a short distance away from both the Matthews Ridge airstrip and GMI’s operations.
Lara disclosed that Lowe has since died but his daughter who was left in charge of the property resides overseas. The woman said that she operated the land with verbal permission from close relatives of the alleged property owner.
She explained that, last year, a four-inch land dredge was set-up to mine the lands but was reportedly stopped by GMI after working for only two weeks.
“I didn’t even get to cut a proper pit, I only work there for two weeks before they come and stop me,” Lara alleged.
The woman claimed that the company wanted to throw its tailings pond (an area that stores waste materials after extracting minerals) on the land she was working.
An overhead shot of the Chinese Company’s operations in Matthews Ridge
“They bus a canal straight through deh [part of the lands she was mining],” Lara said claiming that she protested and the company resorted to soliciting the services of a Mines Officer to remove her.
Lara told Kaieteur News that when the Mines Officer arrived, she made it clear to him that the land she was occupying did not belong to company and it is unfair to take away her livelihood.
“The warden [Mines Officer] know that the lands is not them [GMI] own, he punch it in on the GPS map and see it fuh he self,” the frustrated woman said. Notwithstanding, she was unable to produce documentation to prove that she had permission from the alleged owner to mine the lands and was forced to vacate the lands.
Lara said she complained to the local government authorities in Matthews Ridge to intervene but received no satisfaction.
“I had to pack up and wash down all them mat [a material used to trap gold], a barely get a four and a half penny weight gold,” Lara recalled.
Unable to mine gold, Lara had to find another way to earn an income to take care of her family.
Kaieteur News has made efforts to contact the company and had even visited its operations in Matthews Ridge to speak with the management team but was told by Security Personnel on the ground that an appointment had to be made first.
This is not the first time the Manganese Company is being accused of bullying residents of Matthews Ridge. In fact, the company has refused to comply with an order given by President Irfaan Ali in February to fix all damaged dams and roads so that residents and more particularly schoolchildren and the elderly can traverse. The company has specifically been reluctant to repair a dam it destroyed at Lower Pakera, Matthews Ridge. However, last Thursday, Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo at a press conference agreed that the company has been failing to fulfill commitments made by the previous owners of the GMI.
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