Mining sector outpaces oil & gas in job creation – Bharrat

According to Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat, when the local oil and gas industry reaches its projected peak production, it will employ significantly fewer people compared to the mining sector.
Speaking with this publication, Bharrat said that the mining sector continues to play a major role in Guyana’s economy.
Prior to oil and gas, it was the highest contributor to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP); now it is second with oil and gas being the leading contributor.
Bharrat clarified that the local mining sector does not only refer to gold but also includes bauxite, manganese, and diamond, among other minerals.

“Why I said that mining continue will continue to be a pillar on which we fill our country is mainly because mining employees approximately 30,000 Guyanese whether directly or indirectly, whether you are a miner, a worker at BOSAI or the manganese company where you provide a service like the trucking service or your mechanic you are welder or fabricator, you are part of the mining sector. Just to put things into perspective, even though when again oil and gas industry would have expanded to 10FPSO and producing at 1.2 or 1.3 million barrels of oil per day, the oil and gas sector may not employ the amount of people that are currently employed in the mining sector,” he pointed out.
He reasoned that the structure of the oil and gas sector, being more capital intensive and technologically driven, contrasts with the mining sector, which relies more on labor-intensive operations.
According to him, government’s intention is to ensure that the local mining sector continues to grow, doing so in a sustainable and responsible manner.
“Because our slogan now is mining with the environment in mind, because we cannot speak of mining without taking care or mentioning the care and consideration that we have to put into protecting our environment which is key; our environment our forests or by the diversity is critical for us.”
Moreover, the Natural Resources Minister pointed out that any expanded mining activity will have to be done in an environmentally friendly manner even as government seeks to expand the sector.
“What we have seen recently in the mining sector unfortunately almost all other commodities other than goal we have seen an increase in production. We have seen increase in production in diamond and manganese. We are producing manganese again after about fifty years we are now producing manganese again. The bauxite industry is being rebuilt and we have seen an increase in production in the bauxite industry and the bauxite industry is even poised to expand even more through the expansion work and investment that is happening at BOSAI in Linden,” Bharrat pointed out.
He noted that only recently government licensed a remnant deposit; a new small deposit, to Bosai Minerals Group to boost their production. (G4)