Securing… minerals for US

If we didn’t know it before now, the visit by US Under Secretary of Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg brought to the fore the US’s aggressive moves to take on the Chinks in securing mineral ores of all types across the globe! We’d heard about the rare earths in Ukraine – where Pres Trump insisted that if the US were given first dibs on those ores, the presence of US companies extracting them would provide “US security guarantees” vis-à-vis the big bad Russian bear!! We’ve also heard about Devious Delcy opening up the Venezuelan mining reserves to the US companies. But flying under the radar have been the US moves in Africa – which has been dubbed the “second colonisation”!! Where, for example, in Congo, on top of gold, they offered manganese, copper cobalt, and lithium assets to US investors under a minerals pact. A contract on cobalt was signed with one US firm on Wednesday!! Before all this, the Chinks had been having a field day shipping these ores to China!!
Helberg didn’t beat around the bush, stating quite upfront that his Government is eyeing our bauxite mining industry and to also survey mining lands to identify other minerals!! Referring to his discussions with Pressie, he revealed, “We talked about the opportunities around bauxite and expanding Guyana’s economic activities in the bauxite sector with additional private investment. We also talked about ways that infrastructure investments, especially in roads and potentially autonomous trucking technology, can actually be catalytic to get more Guyanese bauxite on the global market.”
Younger folks mightn’t realise it, but at one time in the sixties – with the Yanks (Reynolds in Berbice) and the Canuks (Alcan at McKenzie) – we were the largest bauxite producer in the world!! Burnham destroyed all of that when he nationalised the industry in 1970 – after which production rose for a while – then sank into oblivion. The Ruskies stepped in (Rusal in Berbice), and the Chinks in McKenzie (Bosai), but the former were pushed out by the bauxite unions, and the latter slowly consolidated!! With our production reaching an all-time high of 3.9 million tonnes – helped by a small US-funded operation over in Bonsika – it looks like the Chinks caught the eyes of the Yanks!!
Now there’s nothing wrong – and lots right! – about the Yanks going toe-to-toe with the Chinks over our bauxite!! It gives us leverage to bargain for greater revenues through royalties, taxes, employment, and indirect economic activity!! Let’s not do another Trotman!!
The low-hanging fruit would be for the Yanks to reopen the Berbice operations and use some of the gas to be brought ashore to run a power plant to convert their bauxite to alumina!!
Go get ‘em, Uncle Sam!!

…the gas to Berbice
The VP was asked – once again – about who’s paying for the gas that’s going to be brought ashore at Vreed-en-Hoop and in Berbice. He replied quite pellucidly: “No, the gas to the power plant is free. You can quote me on that. Gas to the power plant is free. We negotiated that a long time.” As far as your Eyewitness can remember, the much-criticised oil contract stipulates that the oil operators can use the gas that’s brought up with the oil to reinject into the wells to force more oil up – and also to fuel the FPSO!
We then own the gas from the portal in the FPSO. The question, of course, is what can we do with it there?? We can bring it ashore and use it in whichever way we can – but that demands a pipeline!! Which Exxon informed spent US$2 billion for the Vreed en Hoop one!!
Sounds like we gotta amortise that though putting a cost to the gas and its usage!!

…a path to GPHC!!
For the second time in many years, the vendors in front of GPHC are told they better move their operations – since a) it’s illegal and b) it can impact patients entering!!
What’s the problem??