Residents of Chinese Landing – an Indigenous Carib village in Region One – have blocked a number of heavy duty machines from entering their village as they confront the issue of unapproved mining on their lands.

In 2023, the Government temporarily halted all mining activities in Chinese Landing in direct response to a series of precautionary measures issued by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Three years later, the issue of mining continues to take a toll on the Indigenous community, and according to the Chinese Landing-Tassawini Village Council, at least nine excavators, two bulldozers and dredge engines were transported into the village in recent days without prior notice or approval.

The Council has since taken a decision to block the entrance to the Tassawini Backdam, preventing four additional excavators and one bulldozer from entering the village.

In an interview today, Toshao Nikita Miller told News Source that the standoff between the village and the miners entered its fourth day with no real intervention from the Government, only an indication from the Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat that the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GECOM) is in talks with the miners.

“The only intervention from Government, that they could help right now, and what we are standing up for right now is based mainly on the Amerindian Act – that when it comes to entry and access to village land, and it is also stipulated in the Mining Act, that if a miner wishes to carry out work on village land, he has to seek the permission of the Village Council before doing so. And we are also in Court, we still have a legal battle which is before the Court of Appeal,” Toshao Miller said.

The Toshao said with the dispute over the village land still in Court, there should be no mining in the area.

Toshao Miller said since the start of the stand-off, she met with the warden stationed at the Tassawini Landing and was told that the machines are needed for road construction

 “I have talk with the warden, who is stationed right at the landing, and he said, he has received documents in the name of the miner – Wayne Vieira – who is the legal permit holder for the same area, and he said that these machinery are coming to do the road, and the road is only three miles,” Toshao Miller said.

Toshao Miller suspects, however, that the machines would be used to facilitate mining.

“There are enough machinery already in the backdam that pass in without the village consent, they just bullied their way and are working, and they even can do the road. Why the need for all of these machinery now. They are going to do mining, and pretending that they are coming to do the road,” the Toshao said.

The Village Council said it is engaged in good-faith discussions with a well known gold miner to reach a temporary solution while the court case is pending, and it is therefore inappropriate for mining activities to be carried out amid those discussions.

Chinese Landing has 335 residents. In 2023, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said the people of Chinese Landing were at risk of suffering irreparable harm to their human rights due to issues linked to illegal mining and the violation of the Amerindian Act.

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