Guyana has favorable mining laws, with Govt. support, new Canadian gold company tells investors

Jul 27, 2023 News

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Kaieteur News – Canadian mining company, Alerio Gold Mines has hailed Guyana as a country with favourable mining laws and strong support from a pro-mining government.

This was relayed in a presentation on their gold mining projects in Guyana to investors recently. Alerio is the same gold company that had told its investors that there is “gold fever” in Guyana.

According to the company’s website, some reasons why Guyana is a good choice to invest are because of: the country’s established Mining Act, it’s located in a Region with a rich history of economical gold deposits, and have favorable mining laws and government support.

Alerio entered Guyana’s mining industry in June 2021, and had announced its presence in the country via multiple press statements it had posted on its website. Notably, while the company was sure to announce its presence in Guyana via its website, the Guyanese government made no formal announcement to its citizens about the arrival of Alerio Gold.

The Canadian firm posted on its website that it has 100% interest in two highly prospective projects in Guyana: the advanced exploration Tassawini Gold Project and the Puruni Project. Alerio also posted that it has in-country shareholders.

In January, 2022, with the headline, ‘Gold fever Guyana’, Alerio Gold announced to shareholders that it is going to buy another mega gold field in Guyana, located along the Puruni River in Region Seven. According to the Canadian firm, the gold fields were purchased from another company, ‘Goldeneye’, to which the Guyanese government had leased land.

Notably, days after it was reported that Alerio boasted of a ‘gold fever’ in Guyana, a local Miner, Henry Alphonso, came forward to refute claims made by the company that it owns a 9000 acre gold field , Region Seven, which legally belongs to him.

SIGNIFICANT EXPLORATION TARGETS

According to the Alerio, the Tassawini Gold Project is an advanced stage gold project located approximately 175 kilometers to the northwest of the capital city of Georgetown, in Guyana, South America. In April 2023, Alerio announced that its continued partnership with Auracle Geospatial Science has identified four new significant exploration targets at its Tassawini Project.

According to the company, the four newly identified interconnected gold targets, are hosted within a large 3.0 kilometre by 4.5 kilometre anomaly. It was stated too that Tassawini contains a historical mineral resource of 437,000 ounces gold Indicated and an additional 62,000 oz. gold Inferred.

In a statement, Al Fabbro, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Alerio was quoted as saying, “It is very encouraging to note that the historic resource has a relatively small footprint, within a much larger anomaly that has not received any modern exploration, giving the company significant potential for additional discoveries. Utilizing the extensive amount of historical information available to us, in concert with Auracle’s proprietary MUD® system, has provided Alerio with a streamlined and cost-effective way to expedite and prioritize new targets that lie within this anomaly, forming the basis of exploration plans for 2023. Alerio now has a clear pathway toward the potential growth of our Tassawini Deposit.”

SECRECY OF CONTRACTS

As the new foreign company continues to explore Guyana’s gold fields, the government is yet to deliver on its promise to make all mining contracts public.

While foreign companies have been rushing to cash in on the “gold fever” in Guyana, the country has been suffering massive declines in its annual declarations since 2017.

Kaieteur News had made several requests for the Government of Guyana to release the mining contracts, particularly large-scale mining contracts.

In 2019 when Guyana became a member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the country agreed to adhere to several requirements. In this case, EITI requirement 2.4 (a) of the 2019 Standard states that Guyana should publicly disclose all mineral agreements entered into force prior to the reporting period, in this case, 2019. Although the requirements were known to the administration, it continued to make excuses to avoid the release of these contracts.

In this vain, this newspaper reported in December last year that Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo dodged the matter on four different occasions. During a press conference in April however, he publicly committed to releasing the fiscal terms for all mining agreements. This was the second time the Vice President promised to “personally intervene” for the release of the fiscal terms of all large-scale mining contracts.

The Vice President made a similar commitment in August 2022 during an appearance on ‘The Glenn Lall Show’ aired on Kaieteur Radio. While appearing on that radio programme, he told the Kaieteur News’ publisher, Glenn Lall, “I don’t see the reason why many of these are not in the public domain already. I’ll find out about it.”

When pressed further Jagdeo said, “I can undertake to find out with you there, what the GRA [Guyana Revenue Authority] is so cagey about that it doesn’t want to release… I will undertake anything that is non-propriety, that you get it. I will personally now see that this happen.” However, despite the promises by the Vice President, the contracts remain hidden.

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• Al Fabbro, Alerio, Canadian, CEO, investors

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