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Manganese company refutes gold-sifting claims
…paid $21M in royalties last year
Kaieteur News – Chinese-run Manganese Company, Guyana Manganese Inc. (GMI) has refuted claims that the company was involved in gold-sifting at its Matthews Ridge plant.
The company in a statement Thursday said: “The manganese ore is basically crushed and washed in our process plant so there are absolutely no mechanisms in place to capture gold or “separating mills”. This was in response to an article carried by this publication, which quoted Kaieteur News Publisher Glenn Lall. Claiming that, Mr. Lall has made several false claims in the article and also on his television programme, the company noted that their Guyanese employees were involved in all aspects of their operation and that most of their departments were headed by Guyanese including the Workshop, Mines, General Affairs and Security. “All our Operators and Drivers are also Guyanese and are involved in Mining, Milling, Transporting and Loading of Manganese from the Mine to the ocean going vessels at the mouth of the Waini River.”
GMI said that last year it shipped 107,230 tons of manganese ore and paid royalties to the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission of G$21,450,000. “Our fleet of trucks consists of 40-25 ton trucks and not 60 tons as reported by Mr. Lall.”
In response to publisher’s claim that: “the loading of the manganese on the barges, 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?”
The manganese company said: “the loading of the manganese barges is totally done by our Guyanese operators both at Port Kaituma and at the transshipment point at the mouth of the Waini River. Guyanese are also employed on the barges as Able-Body Seamen.”
The Manganese Mining operations at Matthews Ridge.
They claimed that they are unaware of the Guyana Water Inc importing manganese for water purification and if they were indeed doing so that would be up to the management of the water company. They went on to say that “the ships can only be loaded with the quantity of manganese ore that is available for export due to our haulage bottleneck from Matthews Ridge to Port Kaituma. So as to save on the cost of the chartered vessel and to utilize the space available, bauxite may then be loaded onto the same vessel at the Waini Point and not at Linden. These vessels are compartmentalized or have different hatches so that the Manganese and Bauxite are separate. GGMC and Customs officers are involved in the loading process.”
Lall had said that “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 at the Atlantic Ocean.”
The manganese company said that the operation is inspected on a quarterly basis by GGMC and the inspection ranges from safety to environmental issues. Noting that they have nothing to hide, GMI said their operation had no part that was inaccessible to local employees.
They reiterated that they weren’t a gold mining company and there were not involved in extracting, processing or exporting gold. “We view this publication as an orchestrated attack on our company. In fact, Kaieteur News has in the past written several derogatory articles about GMI without seeking clarification or comment from the company. The company had taken a position to not lend any credence to these articles as they were based on falsehoods. We hope this brings some clarity to this issue and expose Kaieteur News. ”
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