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Gold declarations decline further in 1st quarter of 2023 – Bank of Guyana
Kaieteur News – Over the past six years, Guyana’s gold declarations have been falling, even with the massive discoveries being announced.
This year, the trend seems no different, with the Bank of Guyana (BoG) reporting a decline in declarations for the first three months of the year when compared with the same period last year. The BoG in its first quarter statistical report on the performance of the economy has said that gold declarations were lower by 5.3 percent, as local and licensed dealers’ declarations contracted by 23.9 percent. The financial institution reported that, “The declarations from Aurora Gold Mine Inc. (AGM), Zijin Mining’s subsidiary in Guyana, the sole operating foreign company, increased by 65.4 percent, when compared to the same period one year prior.”
Notably, it was indicated that gold prices increased from US$1,897.71 per ounce to US$1,912.73 per ounce – an increase of 0.8 percent, during the first quarter of the year. Data provided to the Bank by the Bureau of Statistics show that revenue earned from the export of gold up to the end of March 2023 amounted to $43,920,500,000 or US$210,145,933.
This amounts to approximately 110,000 ounces of gold declared during the first half of the year. The BoG did not state the total declarations made to the Gold Board during the first quarter of 2022 while reporting the 5.3 percent decline this year.
The continued lower declarations have sparked concern among stakeholders, as foreign gold companies operating in Guyana continue to announce mega finds.
Only yesterday Kaieteur News reported that three weeks after Omai Gold Mines announced drilling results showing significant gold deposits in their Wenot pit, located in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni)–the Canadian company on Monday announced “similar excellent drill results.”
The company had disclosed that since their return to Guyana’s gold industry, they have been expanding their search in their pits as well as increasing the depth at which they search for gold.
When the announcement of the gold discovery was made three weeks ago, Omai Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President, Elaine Ellingham said, “We have not seen any limitations to the Wenot deposit, and as such are confident that additional drilling can further expand the gold resources.”
Further activities at the Wenot deposit have since brought more success for Omai. According to the CEO, “These new results again confirm the significant expansion potential for the Wenot deposit, to depth as well as along the flanks.”
In November last year, a Canadian mining company, Alerio Gold Corp boasted to its shareholders that there was a “gold fever” in Guyana as the company entered into a property purchase agreement to acquire a 100 percent interest in five gold prospecting licenses here, known as the Puruni Gold Property.
Just two weeks prior, it was reported that Omai had struck a new gold find that was worth two times the country’s total debt at the time.
Declarations on decline
Even though gold companies have been boasting of the “unlimited resources” unlocked in Guyana, the excitement of these results has been undermined by a failing sector, at least according to the declarations made to the Guyana Gold Board (GGB).
According to the BoG Annual Report for 2022, the total gold declarations last year declined by 2.5 percent to 486,415 troy ounces (oz). A table used by the financial institution indicated that in 2021 and 2020, declarations were 499,054 oz and 585,433 oz respectively.
In 2019, the gold sector had performed better with declarations amounting to 641,828 oz. The BoG Annual Report for that year explained, “Total gold declaration increased by 4.7 percent and represented 99.1 percent of the revised targeted amount for 2019. The gold subsector experienced greater declarations by small & medium scale miners by 23.9 percent to 448,321 ounces while the combined output of the foreign companies (Guyana Goldfields Inc. and Troy Resources Guyana Inc.) declined by 26.6 percent to 186,584 ounces.”
Meanwhile, for the years 2016, 2017, and 2018, notable decreases were recorded; a total of 712,706 oz, 653,753 oz, and 613,073 oz were recorded respectively. BoG in the 2016 Annual Report noted that gold declarations had increased by 58.1 percent when compared with the resources declared in 2015.
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