Latest update April 3rd, 2025 7:31 AM
Chinese Manganese Company boasts of having best wash plant in the country
– GM denies working gold after workers confront him
Kaieteur News – General Manager (GM) of the Chinese owned Guyana Manganese Inc. (GMI), Robert Shang, on Wednesday last during a meeting with employees, boasted that the company has the best wash plant in the country.
GMI’s operation is based in Matthews Ridge, North West District (NWD), Region One and while speaking with workers there, Shang said, “Look at the wash plant… that is the best wash plant in the country.”
The GM made the statement after workers asked him, “When we money raising?”
He told them with a chuckle that it depends on how hard they work before adding that his company will do its best to take care of them.
However, the workers were more interested in the comment he made about the wash plant. Kaieteur News understands that the wash plant is indeed sophisticated and can separate coarse manganese from fine ones.
It is important to note that some of the employees were gold punters in some of the areas that GMI is now mining for manganese before being employed by GMI.
Suspicious that the “best wash plant” in the country could be separating gold, one of the workers during the meeting asked, “Only manganese it passing or it passing other minerals too?”
Shang responded, “Just the manganese.”
Manganese Operation at Matthews Ridge, North West District.
The worker then continued “or yuh lying”. Probably fearful of what the GM might say next, they told their colleague, “Bai wam wid yuh? How it reach to duh man?” but Shang said “No, it’s ok; I give you the right to ask.”
He provided an explanation to support his position that the plant is only processing manganese and not gold. Shang said that wash plants come in different models and sizes for specific operations.
“Sometime, you have to get the right size, the right model, the right capacity to suit your operation,” explained the GM who noted that there are different wash plants for bauxite, manganese and even stone.
Another employee questioned Shang, “So you trying fuh tell me, you neva find a lil hard eye [a coarse speck of gold] in the thing [Wash plant] deh ?”
Shang responded, “Trust me, your people in the wash plant, your people transport it for us, your people load the ships for us, if there was gold, I won’t be here, I would have gone to China and do the gold business rather than this one that should be better money than his one right.”
The GM told the workers that the GMI “working gold” is just a rumour.
“GGMC [Guyana Geology and Mines Commission] and the Customs (GRA)… they are all here. Even the lab people, they are there,” Shang assured workers in a bid to convince them that gold is not being mined.
The workers replied, “We just asking”.
Meanwhile, Shang accused Kaieteur News of creating the rumour before adding, “If we found any gold, I would be happy, I’d go and take care of the gold business in China.”
Kaieteur News Publisher Glenn Lall had recently made claims that gold sifting is taking place at company’s Matthews Ridge operations.
“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 had said on his show which is aired on Kaieteur Radio every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 19:20hrs and rebroadcast on other days.
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