Govt aware of other miners in area – Broomes

Parish Peak mining

…says matter was referred to GFC for resolution

Following an imbroglio, Government has offered some clarity on the issue involving miners from the National Mining Syndicate who are contending that they are being prevented from mining in Parish Peak.

According to Junior Natural Resources Minister Simona Broomes in a recent interview with this publication, there are indeed other mining properties in the Parish Peak area, but the procedure to be followed in accessing those properties involves the miners having to complete a prospecting permit application.

She also said the process for applying for a prospecting licence, as set out by Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), includes providing a Form five ‘A’ application as well as a map and cartographic description of the area.

“The syndicate that was formed wanted to go in that location, not necessarily to mine, because the procedure is that you go and do prospecting. So it is not even (evident) that they have an application. There are other mining properties in the area, that’s a fact. Before, they (GGMC) would have said that they were not giving out, but persons ended up getting properties in the area.

So they have mining properties in the area and the miners wanted to go in there and do prospecting.”

Broomes stated that when miners came to her, she referred the matter to the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC).

“The process is first they go, identify and do the prospecting; then they come back with their coordinates to Land Management to say, okay, they have identified here, (and verify) if it is available. But they did not even meet to that stage, because when they went there, they could not have passed, (a) gate was across. So they were not allowed to see the area, so the other part of it was not followed,” she explained.

A statement issued earlier in the week from Renwick Solomon, head of the 14Mile Issano Syndicate, noted that the area actually had more than 90 mining operations that were allowed to work with oversight from the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MNRE) .

He noted that since miners from the Syndicate just wanted an equal chance to mine, it was disheartening for the MNRE to say that the area was off-limits when it was aware of the other operators being there.

“In fact,” he contended, “there are over 90 active mining properties operating in the Parish Peak area; and moreover, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) have full oversight of these operations.”

The Syndicate has said it believes that a principled and fair decision must be taken to ensure that anyone seeking mining opportunities is treated equally. It stated that while the MNRE was reasoning that the area was designated as a GGMC reservation, officials still allowed miners to acquire land there. “We find it unfair that the Ministry would use the reasoning that the area is a GGMC-reserved area, one that was held by Goldstone Resources Limited in 1999 and is important for biodiversity, given that the Upper Berbice River comprises pristine lowland forests containing diverse and abundant wildlife, but yet (the MNRE) allow persons to acquire land to mine in the area.”