Some 225 small and medium scale miners are set to benefit from 50 acres of mining lands each, Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat has announced.
Appearing before the Parliamentary Committee of Supply on Wednesday, Minister Bharrat said 100 small miners were allocated lands at Issano in Region 7, where Troy Resources closed its operations. He said together with upcoming mining lotteries in Regions 1,7 and 8 and along with other allocations, a total of over 225 more Guyanese small miners will benefit.
“That will give us a total; of 225 Guyanese small miners who will benefit from that allocation of 50 acres each, with the option that when they mine out their allocation or there is no sign of mineralization, they can relinquish that portion and then apply for another and they will be given some amount of preference since they had one already,” the Minister noted.
According to the Minister, through the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, his Ministry will make more land available to small miners as the demand is growing.
He noted, however, that there have been cases of some small miners being allocated mining lands and choosing to instead work on lands allocated to others.
“Some of them sold their rights to mine on their lands to others including some non-nationals and that’s a reality and I want to say clearly, Mr. Chair, that small and medium scale mining are reserved for Guyanese, so you will not find a non-Guyanese, owning or having permits to mine at small or medium scale level, however, you will see a lot of non-nationals mining at small and medium scale level but I can assure that they are doing so in partnership with a Guyanese land owner or permit holder, “ the Minister said.
In addition, the Minister said a mineral processing process will be rolled out soon to update the mineral inventory, which should help small miners to have data on their claims, land or block.
“Simply put it means that the three areas that we are going to establish, there will be areas that will show greater signs of mineralization, thereby assisting the small miners and relieving them of the expense to go and do prospecting and to contribute to deforestation and a greater chance of finding the minerals that they are mining for,” the Minister said.
Minister Bharrat noted that the compliance and enforcement campaign which started a few weeks ago, will also continue this year across the mining sector.
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