Foreign operators given 24 hours to comply with local declaration obligations

– as Pres Ali orders MNR, GGMC to ensure all miners declare gold produced last year

As efforts continue to streamline the gold mining industry, the Guyana Government is moving to clamp down on foreign operators who fail to comply with local declaration obligations. This was one of the directions given by President Dr Irfaan Ali on Friday as he met with the leadership of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) at State House to discuss the reduction in gold declarations.

During the engagement, the Head of State instructed that immediate action be taken to ensure that all gold miners fully comply with their obligations to declare all gold produced in 2025. “Further, all registered dredges with no declaration will be deregistered, and all foreign miners operating illegally in Guyana must be identified for prosecution and expulsion,” a post on the President’s Facebook page stated.
It was further noted that some Brazilian miners operating in Guyana have had very low or no declarations. According to the post, “These miners were given 24 hours to comply fully with the laws of Guyana and the requirement to declare to the Guyana Gold Board.”
Moreover, the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) and the Natural Resources Ministry will be working together to ensure that all miners in every category operating in Guyana are registered with the Ministry, as well as ensure that they all have a local bank account.

Sustainable industry
In fact, GGDMA President Ronaldo Alphonso has since urged the mining public to be compliant and to sell their gold to legitimate sources to sustain the mining sector for generations to come. “It is our responsibility as miners to ensure the sustainability of the industry. We need to make it compliant, and we need to declare gold. Make 2026 the year of compliance and declaration,” Alphonso noted.
In recent months, there has been a renewed drive by local mining authorities to curb illegal gold trade and streamline the mining sector to strengthen accountability, environmental protection and production compliance.
Only earlier this week, President Ali had revealed that a comprehensive assessment of Guyana’s mining sector will be completed and presented on January 5.

Strong actions
During an engagement with journalists and students on Tuesday, the Guyanese leader explained that the assessment will review every mining licence, claim and operational decision, with firm action against miners and traders who benefit from state incentives but fail to meet their legal and environmental obligations.
“On the 5th of January, there will be a complete assessment on every single licence and every single field, and strong decisions will be taken,” Ali said.
In addition to declaration and compliance issues, the President also warned miners who purchase mercury using declared production figures but fail to properly declare gold output will face scrutiny. “That is why we’re taking the declarations issue very seriously, and we’re going to the mercury they buy with their declarations. If they have land that they’re working on that is gradually registered and there are no declarations, we’re going to repossess those lands because there’s no sense in destroying the environment and there is no production,” the Head of State said.
According to the President, the mining sector was in a severely weakened state when the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government returned to office in 2020, prompting the Administration to introduce hundreds of billions of dollars in incentives to revive the industry. These included duty-free concessions on fuel, machinery and equipment as well as tax incentives, which miners continue to enjoy despite global gold prices rising to more than US$4000 per ounce.
“The mining sector almost went dead when we came back into office. They still benefit from hundreds of billions of dollars in incentives, although the gold prices went up to more than four thousand dollars (US) an ounce. They still have the incentive on fuel,” the President said, noting that the measures directly benefited the wider population by stabilising the sector and preserving jobs.