Record breaking year for gold mining but not for miners – GGDMA

  …President Ramotar pledges support By Dwijendra Rooplall President of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA), Patrick Harding says that even though 2013 has been a record breaking year in the declaration of gold with 481,000 ounces, it has not been the best for miners. This sentiment was expressed when the GGDMA held its first meeting for the year at Regency Suites yesterday. The high level meeting saw in attendance President of Guyana Donald Ramotar, Minister of Natural Resources

from left President of the GGDMA with the President of Guyana, his Ministers and other GGDMA executives.

and Environment Robert Persaud, Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh, Executive Members of the GGMA, and a delegation of over 250 persons including small, medium and large scale miners. Lamenting the numerous challenges plaguing the mining sector, Harding pointed out that lending institutions are reluctant to assist miners with loans. Harding said that the industry has been carrying the economy for several years, with successive increases in growth every year culminating with the highest in 2013 at approximately US $725M dollars. The industry, the GGDMA President said, is the direct provider of jobs for in excess of 16,000 persons and indirectly provides for over 100,000 persons. Harding said miners have been struggling to find ways of cutting costs and ‘staying alive’ in an industry where, in moving away from the use of mercury and utilizing newer technology to capture more gold, it costs a lot more for persons to diversify. This he posits has to be reconciled with covering overhead costs and dispensing taxes and royalties to the government amounting to seven percent; something that the GGDMA says it will be approaching government to decrease in 2014. Compounding the expenses the GGDMA President said was the drop in gold prices by 50 percent recently, something which he said would “devastate” any industry. Harding highlighted the “horrifying” spate of crime- including murders and robberies- happening within the mining industry. He lamented that the police are of no real help since they only “come after a crime is committed or on a patrol where they benefit more than the miners.” Patrick Harding spoke also to the impassable roads of the interior. According to him, finding contractors who are prepared to take up the challenge of building roads within the interior is a herculean task. He also highlighted plans of negotiating with the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) to share the cost of reclamations (cost attributed to restoring mining sites) which he described as extremely high. The GGDMA President called on government to intervene in providing duty free fuel for the entire mining sector, reducing the rental cost for mineral property by 50 percent, opening more mineral areas for mining, clamping down on illegal shops and mining camps, and improving access roads and bridges among other things. Meanwhile President Ramotar lauded the miners for their high gold declaration last year, whilst expressing concern with the falling prices of gold. The President expressed optimism that the prices reduced are temporary, adding that information received from experts indicates that gold prices will move “sideways” for a while and then increase. He was quick to point out however, that not much has changed within the global context to push the price downwards. In addressing some of the concerns of the miners, President Ramotar committed his government to intervening with the lending institutions to increase its loan capacity to miners, as well as put in place legislation to provide protection for hire purchase payments, since he feels it’s not fair for persons to invest substantial amounts in buying equipment only to have it repossessed and the investments made by the miner lost should he/she default on payment. Noting that reclamation is  critical taking into context the protection of the environment, President Ramotar committed to helping small and medium scale miners  in this regard , but asserted that the large scale miners will have to facilitate reclamations independently. He further committed duty free concessions on environmentally safe technology procured by gold miners to ply their trade. He said that a small committee will be established shortly to discuss the issues affecting miners. Expressing concern about the crime situation, President Ramotar said he will ensure that the GGDMA leaders meet with the Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee shortly.