(de Ware Tijd) PARAMARIBO – The small-scale gold mining industry exported close to 19,000 kilograms of gold in 2011, at least on paper. The total value of those exports was over US$ 914 million. They yielded US$ 9.2 million in royalties and close to 22.3 million in taxes for the state.

The Foreign Currency Commission, which reported these figures, also states that the small-scale gold mining industry dominates gold mining in Suriname in contrast to the Rosebel Goldmines operations of Canadian multinational IamGold, whose production level did not exceed 12,000 kilograms in 2011. However, the state earned a lot more from IamGold, namely US$ 146.4 million, because this figure includes taxes on returns and income tax. Not all gold exported by the small-scale industry is mined in Suriname. Neighbouring Guyana and French Guiana are plagued by serious smuggling of gold, which is transported to Suriname. Royalties in Suriname are 2.5 percent lower compared to the 5 percent levied in the neighboring countries, which makes it far more attractive to smuggle the gold to Suriname.

Natural Resources Minister Jim Hok estimates the actual annual production of the small-scale and industrialized gold mining industry to be close to 30,000 kilograms. “We should expect production to rise when we’re through with our negotiations with IamGold,” Hok tells de Ware Tijd, referring to the current negotiations on the planned US$ 700 million expansion investment by Rosebel Goldmines. Increased production may be visible this year already because expansion mostly goes a lot faster than putting up an entirely new mine.

Within three years more gold will be produced when Surgold, a Newmont-Alcoa joint venture, becomes operational. The Minister admits that negotiations with IamGold and Surgold are taking a bit longer than he had expected. “We’ve had some progress in the negotiations. Both the Surinamese government and the companies had hoped to have concluded their business by the end of this month. However, we have agreed that we’ll be talking a bit longer. We’re not at loggerheads, we just haven’t ironed out all details,” says an optimistic Hok.