Uranium Mining

Of recent, we seem to have produced a woke strata of Guyanese who generally live abroad, and upon discovering that we possess a resource the world increasingly wants, immediately insist we should leave it in the ground. A decade ago, it was oil, and today it is uranium. The metal is becoming strategically important again, with demand growing as countries seek reliable, low-carbon electricity and ensure nuclear power makes a comeback.
The International Energy Agency and OECD nuclear specialists have been warning of the need for new production and investment in the uranium supply chain. Guyana, with its known uranium resources, should not simply watch this opportunity pass by.
That, however, does not mean handing mining companies a blank check but doing what a serious resource-producing country should do: permit mining of established deposits under stringent environmental, safety, and fiscal conditions. We already have a regulatory framework for precisely that purpose since uranium prospecting is specifically regulated by the GGMC, while production requires environmental authorization under the Environmental Protection Act. The EPA has mining EIA guidelines, and the GGMC’s responsibilities include licensing, inspections, enforcement, mine safety, and environmental protection.
In other words, the argument should not be “uranium versus the environment” but “uranium subject to environmental regulation.” That distinction matters since modern uranium mining is not the uranium industry of the Cold War era, and exploration, mine design, tailings management, radiation monitoring, worker protection, water management, and rehabilitation can all be subjected to enforceable standards. The EPA’s environmental permitting process and the GGMC’s mining oversight provide Guyana with the institutional machinery to insist upon those safeguards.
And there is a potentially substantial economic prize, with our mining policy already insisting that the State should receive royalties, fees, and other fiscal returns from its mineral resources. The GGMC notes that mineral production is subject to royalties and that mining companies can also generate corporate and other tax revenues. The recently revived Kurupung uranium project illustrates the opportunity. The project has a historical resource estimate of about 20.6 million pounds of uranium, although that historical estimate should not be confused with a presently established economic reserve. Its current developers are undertaking further exploration and environmental work.
And here is where we must learn from oil, and while welcoming uranium investment, negotiate from strength. Before commercial production begins and the critical EPA permission is granted, we must establish a fiscal regime that properly compensates our country for a finite strategic resource. Royalties, corporate taxes, environmental bonds, rehabilitation obligations, and community benefits should be transparent. The fact that uranium royalty arrangements may be negotiated when a mining permit is sought is therefore not a reason to oppose uranium; it is a reason for Guyana to negotiate intelligently.
There should also be no shortcuts on consultation, and Indigenous communities whose lands or traditional territories could be affected must be properly informed and involved. But neither should legitimate environmental concerns become a veto over every attempt to develop our country’s mineral wealth. We cannot simultaneously proclaim that Guyana must diversify beyond oil; that our mineral resources belong to the people; that government needs additional revenues for roads, schools, health care, and infrastructure, and then have groups decide that every new mineral opportunity is somehow too dangerous to touch.
The sensible position is neither “mine uranium at any cost” nor “never mine uranium, “ but mine it if the geology, economics, and environmental assessments justify it, and we establish conditions stringent enough to make our national interests come first. Oil has taught Guyana that natural resources can transform a country’s finances. Uranium offers a corollary: the world is entering another period in which control of strategic minerals such as bauxite and uranium matters, and we should not be afraid of that opportunity.
Rather, we should ensure that our regulators are sufficiently demanding of mining companies and sufficiently hard-headed in our fiscal negotiations to exploit it responsibly. We know the uranium is there, and since the world is willing to pay for it, and if it can be extracted safely, why should Guyana leave the money-and the strategic opportunity-in the ground?