Small miners allocated claims in former Troy Resources concession to boost gold declaration shortfall

Last Updated on Tuesday, 14 November 2023, 23:06 by Denis Chabrol

Amid a slump in gold declaration during this year, the Guyana government has decided to divide the former Troy Resources Mining concession at Karouni, Region 8 (Potaro-Siparuni) and allocate lots to small-scale miners, Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat said Tuesday.

“We have identified an area within the former Troy Resources property and we are allocating claims to Guyanese small miners,” he told a news conference.

With the Australia-headquartered Troy Resources having packed up and left after owing Guyana more than GY$2.6 billion in royalties, Mr Bharrat said so far 50 small-scale miners have been allocated concessions via a “fair” lottery system. “Many of them have already moved into the area and started to mobilise so we will see some amount of activities in that area by our small miners who have always complained about access to land. They now have that opportunity to mine on land allocated to them,”. He said a branch of the Guyana Gold Board (GGB) has also been established in the area to purchase the precious yellow metal from miners there “with payments being made in Georgetown and not in the interior.”

Government did not provide the latest gold declaration figures so far for the year on Tuesday, but the Bank of Guyana 2023 half -year report states that total gold declaration declined by 11.4 percent to 209,756 ounces at end-June 2023.  The Natural Resources Ministry attributes that to severe floods in 2021 and 2022, the current dry spell and a shift in workers from gold mining to higher paying construction jobs on the coastland. “We know and we can’t run away from the fact that because of oil and gas and because of investment construction that is taking place on the coast. Most people prefer to stay and work on the coast now than to venture into the interior,” the minister said. He added that government would examine that challenge further as part of steps to keep the gold sector “going.”

Latest estimates are that the mining sector employs about 30,000 Guyanese directly and indirectly. He said there are increased job opportunities in the quarry sector for the supply of sand, loam and aggregate.

Meanwhile, the Natural Resources Minister said the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) would be assisting residents of Chenapau to prospect for gold in areas other than the Kaieteur National Park, one of Guyana’s legally protected areas. Mr Bharrat said the miners from that Amerindian community have been ordered to cease illegal gold mining in that Park, but they have been allowed to leave their equipment at the illegal mines until they are awarded legal concessions. “We have given them time to move the equipment but they’ve mentioned to us and we understand it costs money to demobilise, move their equipment to the village and then cost another set of money to move the equipment back to the village to where GGMC is going to prospect and to move them,” he said.

He said that with gold reserves being exhausted in a number of areas, government has been constructing roads in the Aranka, Arimu area “so that we can open up new lands because the lands that are accessible have been used up for a long period of time.”