High-tech mineral mapping will reduce cost of gold prospecting, preserve environment, says officials

Last Updated on Thursday, 22 August 2024, 8:19 by Writer

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Joslyn McKenzie and the CEO of Global Venture, Emily King sign the mineral mapping agreement. Witnessing the signing were staff members of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, US Ambassador Nicole Theriot, GGMC Commissioner Newell Dennison, Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat and the President of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association, Ronald Alphonso.

Guyana on Wednesday inked a US$1.875 million dollar agreement to begin a high-tech multi-year mineral mapping exercise, the first since 1968, to pinpoint gold deposits and reduce the cost of prospecting, officials said.

Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat said the work by the United States company, Global Venture Consulting, is also aimed at finding “critical minerals” such a lithium.

He said small-scale miners such as those in Amerindian communities would eventually be able to tap into the detailed data to pinpoint gold deposits with greater accuracy. With small- and medium-scale gold miners totalling about 30,000 persons, he said miners stood to benefit from the project. “Rather than spending large sums in doing unnecessary prospecting in areas that may be barren, we can actually point them to mineralised areas with more informed data and information that will be available after this project is completed,” he said at the signing of the agreement.

Ms Emily King, Chief Executive Officer of Global Venture Consulting, said Guyana was poised to become the “very first country” to undertake an almost national scale mapping by airborne geophysics and satellite surveys, “establishing itself as a global leader in integrating AI or artificial intelligence and machine learning into the methodical and comprehensive exploration.” 

Mr Bharrat said the mineral mapping exercise would assist Guyana in balancing mineral exploration and exploitation with the preservation of the forests and other aspects of the environment. He also underscored the importance of Guyana locating “critical minerals” such as lithium to transition away from fossil fuels “which is the right thing to do if we want to save our world.” “We believe that there may be traces of critical minerals,” he said.

United States Ambassador to Guyana, Nicole Theriot also stressed the importance of the mineral mapping to guide policy making, attract investment and ensure resource extraction is done in a responsible and sustainable manner. She said the mineral mapping exercise could be used to take remedial action in already mined out areas of Guyana. “It also supports the development of strategies to rehabilitate and restore areas already affected by mining, ensuring Guyana’s ecosystems are preserved for future generations,” she said.

Ms Theriot said mineral mapping would create the conditions to attract investors from the United States and from other like-minded countries that value good business ethics and the rule of law.

The US envoy offered her country’s expertise in trusted technology, data analysis and environmental protection. 

Under the agreement, Global Venture would harness the technologies of the United States Geological Surveys (USGS) and a number of companies to gather data about Guyana’s mineral resources.