Mineral mapping to help avoid unnecessary deforestation by miners

The Guyana Government is looking to reduce deforestation caused by miners with its mineral mapping exercise, for which some $400 million has been allocated in Budget 2024.

During the Consideration of Estimates for the 2024 National Budget on Wednesday, Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat defended a $710 million allocation that is earmarked for several projects, including the rolling out of a mineral mapping project which would be launched in phases.
According to the minister, this mineral survey is “badly needed”, and would assist with a more informed allocation of claims and mining blocks of mineralized areas. This, he explained, would significantly reduce deforestation caused by miners.
With a limited or outdated mineral inventory, miners are usually issued lands that they clear out, and if they do no find minerals, then they would move on to other locations.
The Natural Resources Minister pointed out that this mineral survey would also remove or ease the cost of prospecting and exploration exercises, especially for small- and medium-scale miners. Already, miners do not usually invest in this exercise.
“Many miners don’t spend on prospecting…so they’re basically destroying patches of forests as they are seeking to find minerals. But once we can complete the mineral inventory and have an updated mineral inventory, then we can point you in a direction where there is mineralisation, maybe 90-95 per cent, so there is no need to go destroy any other part of the forest,” Bharrat disclosed.

Lithium in big demand
Phase One of this mapping project would focus on gold and diamond minerals, as well as on critical elements. The Natural Resources Minister has noted that the latter minerals are being sought after worldwide. He added, “We know that lithium is in big demand across the world.”
He said last year’s global production for lithium was just about half of a million tonnes, but the demand was three million tonnes. “So it is a much-sought-after element around the world, and we know that there are few countries in South America producing lithium. So, we believe that we may have that in the critical minerals here too, so that is why we are focused on not only the gold and diamonds, but the critical elements here too, especially lithium,” Bharrat stated.
In its first phase, the mineral survey would focus on the main mining districts: the Mazaruni area; including Issano, Pappi Show and Tamakay. The Puruni area, a heavily mineralized area that has the Toroparu Deposit, where many small- and medium-scale miners are operating. And the North West District area; where there is a mining station at Eclipse Falls, at Port Kaituma, and at Matthews Ridge subdistrict.
According to Minister Bharrat, in addition to the high cost of this exercise – between US$30 million and US$40 million – this mineral mapping project would also entail a lot of in-house work before the physical survey actually starts. This includes the examination of data available at the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) on the mining districts across the country.
Moreover, the mineral mapping project would also target some new mining areas in its other phases. The Natural Resources Minister said this would aid in addressing the country’s low gold production levels, which have been on decline since 2017. He outlined that one of the main reasons for this reduced gold production is the fact that the same lands are being reworked constantly.
“We keep reworking [the same land], but at some point in time, obviously, the minerals will diminish from it. So, it is definitely important that we look at the new areas available, and do the survey in some of those new areas as well as some of the existing areas, because we believe that some of the existing areas are not being worked out fully, mainly because of accessibility too,” he asserted.

Land reclamation & reforestation
Another $300 million from the $710 million would be allocated towards the land reclamation and reforestation programme. This project commenced last year in Region 10 with some 60 acres of land identified for reclamation/ reforestation.
The Natural Resources Minister disclosed that works have been significantly advanced, with over 100 persons being employed. The 2024 budget allocation would go towards continuation of the project, with focus this year on another 60 acres in Regions One and Eight, at Matthews Ridge and Mahdia respectively, where Bharrat noted there are significant mined-out areas.
“This will help significantly to boost our capacity as a green country, our forest coverage, and in the long-term add more carbon credits to our already verified credits by ART-TREES,” he stated.

In December 2022, Guyana became the first country to receive certification of over 33 million carbon credits by the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART). That issuance of the REDD+ jurisdictional carbon credits paved the way for the historic US$750 million carbon credit sale between Guyana and Hess Corporation.
The Opposition grilled the Natural Resources Minister about the scope of work to be done, given that the reclamation and reforestation project is another expensive undertaking. Minister Bharrat defended the allocation as an “investment”.
“When I was defending my budget to the Finance Minister, I said, ‘Look at it as an investment, and not an expense’, because already we are earning money from our forests…through the US$750M deal…So, it’s more of an investment, and it’s needed especially in the context of climate change and our own NDCs – Nationally Determined Contributions – to fighting climate change, and our commitments as a country to all the agreements that we would have signed, including our own LCDS (Low Carbon Development Strategy 2030),” Bharrat stressed. (G8)