Gold miners using less mercury; new methods too expensive for small scale miners

Last Updated on Tuesday, 14 January 2025, 23:14 by Writer

Guyana’s gold mining sector is using less mercury overall as large- and medium-scale miners are now required to use cyanide to trap the precious metal from ore, but small-scale miners will take some time to fall in line because the new methods are too expensive, Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat said Tuesday.

Mr Bharrat said the large scale gold miner is using cyanide and a new large-scale gold mine that is in the works as well as medium-scale miners, were required to ink an agreement that prohibits mercury use. “Many of the medium-scale approvals that we’re giving now, especially the new medium-scale approvals, we ensure that there is a clause there to say mercury should not be used or mercury is prohibited,” he said, citing the Marudi operations. He said authorities had since inspected operations there and they had been complying.

Average import of mercury by Guyana from 2010 to 2014 was 80,668 kilogrammes per year. In 2023, the Ministry of Natural Resources informed the Minamata Convention Secretariat that Guyana has capped the amount of mercury to be imported for use in the Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) sector to 1,000 flasks/34,500 kilogrammes per year.

The Minister, however, said the major challenge was getting the small-scale miners onboard because the new alternatives to mercury use are specific to the geology of different areas and could cost between GY$5 million and GY$10 million. “If we should say to the smaller miners that ‘you have to stop now and use this system’ basically we are putting them out of operation,” he said. While the recovery rate using the new system would be higher, he acknowledged that the cost is a barrier. Centralised processing of ore, he said, could also be tricky because of transportation cost from scattered locations.

Authorities were exploring the use of another alternative technology that could be used in areas with different geological features.

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Joslyn McKenzie said Guyana is the “leading country” in the implementation of the 2013 Minamata Convention on Mercury. He boasted that Guyana has recorded a “significant reduction” in mercury imports.

He said Guyana now needed to find technology that is “applicable, affordable and accessible” because trials of the shaking table, gold cube and Knelson concentrator could not work in all geological profiles.

The World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, Guyana Geology and Mines Commission and the Guyana Mining School have been working in neighbouring Suriname.

The Minister warned that the days of digging pits, mining and discharging water in pits would soon be over as environmental inspectors would be ensuring that miners have tailings ponds.