GGDMA hopeful miners can close production gap by year-end

– welcomes Govt’s commitment to sector

The Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) on Sunday stated that it welcomes the continued commitment to the sector by the Government of Guyana and hopes that miners will accelerate production and make significant strides for the remainder of 2024.
This came in light of recent statements by Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo and Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat regarding the critical importance of the mining sector to Guyana’s current and future development.
The GGDMA in a release stated that the sector feels buoyed by the support and understanding demonstrated by the contributions and struggles facing the sector.
“The GGDMA has always maintained that mining is a major contributor to Guyana. The Guyana gold and diamond mining industry employs tens of thousands of Guyanese and is also the generator of billions of dollars in disposable and discretionary income that energises businesses in all other sectors of the country.”
It added that over the years, the organisation has advocated for improvements in environmental stewardship and the sector has made several significant strides in this area as a consequence of partnering with recognised environmental organisations such as Conservation International and the World Wildlife Fund on various projects in the past.
“The GGDMA remains a non-political organisation that will continue to lobby for the interests and benefits of miners and the industry, we are ready to work with any credible agency to advance the interest of mining and miners in Guyana.”
Further, the GGDMA stated that it does not recognise “one-man” organisations or lobbyists with questionable motives and sources of funding from biased international interests that seek to take “bread” out of the mouths of Guyanese thereby depriving the nation of socio-economic advancement.
“These ideologues seek to vilify Guyanese miners as they do the bidding of certain forces who would much prefer to see our nation stay “green” and poor rather than maximise the benefits of our natural mineral wealth. The GGDMA is a pro-mining Guyanese organisation and our membership embodies the independent entrepreneurial spirit of Guyana. Over the years miners have moved from battel to excavators to crusher plants and we will continue to fight for the advancement of the mining industry despite certain anti-mining detractors whose relevance is inextricably linked to continually maligning Guyana’s extractive sector.”
However, the GGDMA related that it will continue to encourage its membership to declare their production accurately, to only sell their production to the Guyana Gold Board or licensed buyers, collect their receipts, and regularly request statements from the Guyana Gold Board of all royalties and taxes paid to ensure that your declarations are accurately reflected.
The Association also wishes to reiterate the recent advisory to mine operators to desist from paying staff and suppliers in gold as this practice is not in line with the law.
“This year has been a slow one thus far for the sector, however, the GGDMA remains hopeful that miners will accelerate production and make significant strides for the remainder of 2024 to close the production gap and achieve the nationally set targets.”
Only last week, Head of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) Newell Dennison reported that gold declaration has seen a steady decline from 2016 to 2023 due to several factors but believes there is still hope with several measures in the pipeline to curb smuggling and increase production.
He noted that the sector is confronted with unprecedented climate-related and other phenomena over the recent years including flooding, COVID-19 which led to the pause of all activities, and drought.
However, he said measures including investment in technology, deployment of more resources, hosting of lotteries, processing of land applications, and more, are being implemented to help the sector improve.