Latest update July 5th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 12, 2023 News
Kaieteur News – Amid allegations of gold-sifting at the Chinese-run Guyana manganese Inc., Commissioner of Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) Newell Dennison is calling on citizens to report any illegal mingling of materials in shipments.
Dennison’s comments come on the heels of a Kaieteur News article on Monday which shed some light on the allegations. Instead of directly responding to this newspaper, he dispatched a letter to the Stabroek News, calling on citizens to come forward with any information they may have about the claims. “The GGMC would welcome any credible reporting of the illegal commingling of commodities in their shipment from Guyana, so that the same can be properly investigated,” Dennison said in his missive to Stabroek News.
The issue first came to light when Kaieteur News Publisher, Glenn Lall raised it on his nightly radio show. Noting that Guyanese are not allowed to work near the mills, Lall said that the Guyana Manganese Inc. (GMI) company at Matthews Ridge is sifting the two minerals “non-stop” at the North West District mining operation. “The so-called manganese plant sifting manganese and gold non-stop in Matthews Ridge and not a single Guyanese is allowed to work near the mills separating the gold from the manganese,” Lall alleged.
Lall made the revelation on his show which is aired on Kaieteur Radio every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 19:20hrs and rebroadcasted on other days.
The publisher noted that in the year 2022, Guyana collected around US $5M in earnings from manganese, when over $1B left the country’s shores. The company, a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned Bosai Minerals Group, obtained the rights to operate at Matthews Ridge in 2016. Lall said the company has a fleet of 40-60 tonne trucks driven by Guyanese. The trucks transport the manganese to Port Kaituma from its operations base. However, he said locals are not involved in the operation beyond this point. “The loading of the manganese on the barges and on the ship, is strictly done by the Chinese. Guyanese don’t get to see what or how much is being loaded on those barges or ships on a daily basis. What is the reason for that?” Lall questioned.
He went on to say that Guyana is giving away raw manganese in billions of US dollars while on the other hand, the country imports the finished products by the hundreds of millions of US dollars to purify the country’s water supply at the Guyana Water Inc. (GWI).
“I was also informed that these ships when they leave Port Kaituma, they do not go out and offload immediately into the big ship waiting outside in the Atlantic Ocean. It goes first to Linden at the bauxite company to pick up bauxite. Then head out to offload in the big ship in the Atlantic Ocean,” Lall alleges.
He further claims that at Port Kaituma, the ships are not filled to the brim, noting that only three quarters with manganese are loaded there. The ships, he claims then head to Linden where a small quantity of bauxite is spread on top to cover the manganese. According to Lall when declared with customs, the consignment does not leave Guyana as the expensive manganese metal, but rather, as the cheaper mineral, bauxite.
Lall alleged that in order to cover up the scam, no Guyanese national is allowed to work near the ships at Port Kaituma. But that’s not all, he added. He said that some years ago, Chinese nationals entered Guyana illegally to test the ground at Matthews Ridge to detect what minerals they could find to exploit.
Upon their discovery of the exact mineral, they were after, which is gold, the Chinese company informed the government that they were going to conduct manganese operations in Guyana. “Them people land on a gold mine in Matthews Ridge, wuh become a gold galore, uncle day and night, is not enough for them people to wuk, them ain’t only install one grinding mill, them install three mills that separates the gold from the manganese,” Lall said.
He claims that the manganese plant is a dual-purpose venture, sifting gold and manganese non-stop and Guyanese aren’t allowed to work near the site.
He illustrated the operations on his show with photographs, which indicated the processing tray of the minerals and it was clear that the ratio of raw gold greatly outweighed that of the manganese. GMI is not registered to mine gold. The company never declared “a single pennyweight” of gold to the Guyana Gold Board. Lall added that he is in possession of video evidence which shows the magnitude of the gold operations to substantiate his claims.
Meanwhile, in his letter Dennison highlighted that the processing of manganese for shipment does not readily present the opportunity for the processing of gold. Dennison went on to state that the large-scale operators in mining such as bauxite, manganese, and gold are regularly inspected and processes observed which should uncover such obvious occurrences as the “sifting of gold non-stop at Matthews Ridge.”
He further stated, that there are no areas of mining operations that GGMC staff cannot access as it is not off limits, and the agency has a constant staff presence of technical officers’ at large-scale mining operations. “There are no areas of the mining operations that are off limits to the GGMC officers who are on regular and/or special inspections of the companies’ operations,” Dennison said. The Commissioner did note that the shipments of mineral commodities from Guyana have different aspects that engage officials from State agencies, who are competent authorities for such business. He said that GGMC has never been denied access to loading areas, if necessity arose.
In August 2021, Kaieteur News reported that with the Guyana’s growing extractive sectors being key to the nation’s development, communities like Matthews Ridge, highlight the need for a more robust engagement on the part of the government when monitoring the activities of companies like GMI and enforcing laws, which are supposed to protect citizens, their livelihoods, and environment.
Routledge, the exploiter, says Glenn Lall has an axe to grind!
Jul 05, 2024
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