Guyana woos foreign investors with attractive mining opportunities

Mar 23, 2025 News

---

… MNR showcases country’s mining potential and lucrative benefits

Kaieteur News- The Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) is promoting Guyana as an attractive destination for foreign investment in the mining sector, highlighting a range of benefits for potential investors.

In a recent publication titled “The Mining Sector in Guyana 2025,” the ministry outlined the country’s competitive advantages, emphasizing its rich mineral resources, investor-friendly policies, and stable regulatory framework.

According to the MNR, Guyana boasts a long history of mining and is situated in a geological environment conducive to the discovery of large mineral deposits. It was also noted that the country is already extracting a variety of minerals, including gold, diamonds, bauxite, silica sands, manganese, and quarriable stones.  Additionally, the ministry outlined that there is significant potential for other minerals, such as columbite-tantalite, uranium, copper, nickel, and platinum group metals, which remain largely underexplored using modern methods.

The government has positioned itself as pro-mining, offering favorable investment conditions, including security of title and property rights. The ministry noted that foreign investors can benefit from 100% ownership of Prospecting Licenses (PLs) and Mining Licenses (MLs), with rights to assign and transfer ownership under these agreements. Furthermore, it was highlighted that the country follows English Common Law, ensuring a stable legal framework for business operations.

Investors are also being enticed with tax incentives, such as zero-rating on all equipment, process materials, and spares used for surveys, exploration, or mining. The MNR notes that food and beverages are not included in these exemptions. In addition, the ministry highlights the ease of access to digital geological and cartographic data for most mining areas, along with straightforward procedures for application, licensing, and operation.

Another key advantage promoted by the government is the stability of agreements with mining companies, ensuring long-term operational security. The Mining Act of 1989 allows for the granting of mining licenses once the terms of a prospecting license are fulfilled, streamlining the transition from exploration to production.

With its English-speaking population, established legal framework, and investor-friendly policies, Guyana is positioning itself as a prime location for international mining ventures.

Zijin Mining Group Co. Ltd, a Chinese state-owned mining giant operating in Guyana through its subsidiary Aurora Gold Mine (AGM), reported a 32.3% increase in declarations, reaching 144,593 ounces of gold produced in 2024. In 2023, Zijin recorded higher declarations by 7.8% to 109,358.4 troy ounces. The company had made some US$185 million from its operations in Guyana that year. Within the first six months of 2024, AGM produced 1,949 kilograms (over 68,000 ounces) of gold. This information was revealed in Zijin’s interim half-year report on its global operations.

Back in January, Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat disclosed that gold production in Guyana saw a modest increase of 1,954 ounces in 2024, from 432,113 ounces in 2023 to 434,067 ounces in 2024. This follows a long-stint of Guyana’s gold declaration being on the decline. Kaieteur News had reported that from 2019 to 2023, gold declarations dropped by approximately 209,000 troy ounces, according to the Bank of Guyana’s (BOG) annual reports.

Minister Bharrat had stated that the government is also focusing on improving recovery rates, particularly for small and medium-scale miners, whose rates currently stand at 40 to 45%. The lone-large scale producer AGM has seen recovery rates as high as 95%. Further, he noted that some medium scale miners have now returned to the mining sector after expanding and exploring opportunities in other sectors.

Currently, there are several Canadian mining companies working in Guyana’s gold industry that are working towards startup production.

Omai holds a 100% interest in the gold project, which encompasses two gold deposits: the shear-hosted Wenot Deposit and the adjacent intrusive-hosted Gilt Creek Deposit located in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni).

The results from its first Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for the Wenot Project revealed that the project is slated to yield over 142,000 ounces of gold annually over a 13-year mine life. At its peak, production is anticipated to soar to 184,000 ounces in a single year, with a total estimated production of 1,840,000 ounces of payable gold.

The Omai property Mineral Resource Estimates (MRE) totals 4.3 million ounces (Wenot at 834,000 oz. averaging 1.48 g/t Au (Indicated) & 1,614,000 oz. averaging 1.99 g/t Au (Inferred) PLUS Gilt Creek at 1,515,000 oz. averaging 3.22 g/t Au (Indicated) and 665,000 oz. averaging 3.35 g/t Au (Inferred)).

Since its return to Guyana, Omai has been more focused on the Wenot mining pit, where a constrained pit approach is applied. The company has announced that it is now working on the Gilt Creek deposit where an underground mining approach is applied to integrate the Gilt Creek into an updated PEA planned for this year.

Moreover, another Canadian company, G Mining Ventures (GMIN) is the new owner of the 4.5 million ounces Oko West gold project located in Bartica, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni). The Oko West Project is currently considered an “advanced-stage exploration project”, and is expected to produce 353,000 ounces of gold annually from both open pit and underground mining.  The project is projected to recover 4.5 million ounces of gold over 12.7 years, according to its PEA released in September 2024.

Greenheart Gold Corporation a spin off from the merger between GMIN and Reunion Gold Corporation is working on the Abuya Project in northeastern Guyana. Notably, Greenheart Gold said its goal is to build a robust portfolio of the early-stage exploration projects that target the key geological factors believed to have been crucial to the discovery of Oko West.

Gold Port Corporation, the 100% owner of the Groete Gold Copper Project located in the Essequibo, had their mining permits renewed last year for five years. The mining permits, which cover 1,384 hectares, will now remain in effect until July 2027. The project boasts an inferred mineral resource estimate of 1.57 million gold-copper equivalent ounces, contained in 74 million tonnes at a grade of 0.66 grams per tonne gold equivalent, according to a 2019 National Instrument 43-101 report.

(Guyana woos foreign investors with attractive mining opportunities)

---

• foreign companies, gold, Mining, natural resources, Vickram Bharrat

---