Gold production outlook for 2021 positive – Gold Board

…as more dealers flood Guyana
…declarations dip in 2020

By Jarryl Bryan

The Guyana Gold Board (GGB) is on course to record reduced gold declarations for last year as compared to 2019, with preliminary figures so far showing a 7.97 per cent reduction in declarations.

This was revealed by GGB General Manager Eondrene Thompson, in an exclusive interview with this publication. According to Thompson, their preliminary figures show that for 2020, 584,291 ounces of gold was declared. However, she stressed that these figures are not final.
“So far, what we’re showing is that for 2020, we’ve declared 7.97 per cent less than what we’ve declared in 2019. But I wish to reiterate that the figures are not final. They’re preliminary. We’re working on our final figures… it has to do with the dealers and their competitors,” Thompson said. Meanwhile, this publication understands from sources that El Dorado Trading was the top gold producer for last year.
In 2019, gold declarations were 634,905 ounces. Thompson attributed this drop to the period of inactivity from the two largest gold producers. She noted that one of them, Troy Resources, had at one point suspended its operations following an accident.

The other company, Aurora Gold Mine, was previously managed by Canadian company Guyana Goldfields. That was until Goldfields moved to downsize and then sold its operations last year, with Chinese company Zijin Mining Group eventually taking over.
“The shortfall comes from the two biggest investors that we have. Troy Resources had suspended operations due to an industrial accident. And the Guyana Goldfields changed management and as such, they had their own mining challenges. So that’s where the shortfall comes from,” Thompson told this publication.

Positive 2021 outlook
Asked about the outlook for 2021, Thompson noted that it is a positive one. According to her, more gold companies are in the process of entering the market and this coupled with the historical performance of the sector, augurs well for an improved year.
“Yes, 2021 seems to be a brighter year than 2020, because of the very fact that we have more dealers, prospective dealers, coming in. We’ve not finalised that as yet. And we have shown an upward trend towards the end of the year. And I trust that this trajectory continues.”
While 2020 saw reduced gold declarations compared to the previous year, it did see a number of gold finds. For instance, Australia-based mining company Alicanto Minerals made its first-ever gold find in Guyana in November, only days after another mining company, Troy Resources, announced that it had found gold deposits underground.
According to Alicanto, it discovered a maiden resource of 500,000 ounces of gold at its Arakaka gold mine, which is located in Region One. According to the company, this works out to 1.8 grams per tonne (g/t) of milled ore.
Alicanto’s Managing Director, Peter George, was even quoted as saying that the 500,000-ounce maiden find was just the start of what he believed would be a rapidly growing inventory at Arakaka.
“This resource is shallow, the mineralisation remains open in all directions and we already have numerous intersections outside the resource which will form part of the next estimate,” George said. “We also have multiple walk-up targets with multi-million-ounce bulk tonnage potential that remain to be drilled,” he had said.
Alicanto’s discovery came on the heels of fellow Australian mining company Troy Resources, which announced that it had found some 15 grams per tonne of milled ore or g/t, at its Karouni, Smarts Underground Mine in Region Two.