The hopes of Acting Police Commissioner Clifton Hicken, and Acting Deputy Commissioner Calvin Brutus of setting up sandpit operations on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway have been dashed with the Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo telling reporters today that “it is not going to happen.”

According to the project documents published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), both Hicken and Brutus filed applications to set up independent sandpit operations on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway. In the published newspaper notice, the two senior Police Officers were announced as seeking to acquire mining permits from the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) for the purpose of extracting quarry sand on a commercial scale.

With the allotted areas measuring 11.7 acres each, the two top ranking police officers were each hoping to sell 76,000 tons of sand annually over a period of 10 years. 

But at his weekly press conference today, the Vice President said no permission will be granted for additional sand mining.

“The Government of Guyana’s position is clear; it is not going to happen. They may have the land for agricultural use, that is what people have land for, but not for the purpose of mining sand,” he told reporters. 

The Vice President made it clear that the Government has put a hold on all new sandpit operations on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway. 

He said with sand mining now a lucrative business, there have been more than 200 applications for sand mining projects. However, the Administration also needs land development of new housing schemes and towns along the highway, and therefore cannot be wantonly giving out land for sandpit operations in that area.

The Vice President said with a high demand for sand, the price has been climbing rapidly, but the Government is looking to bring the price back down. 

“We have noticed that people who had sandpits were jacking up the prices; the government already open up some public sandpits. We intend to open up more public sandpits to lower the price, so we are not giving permission for no sandpit at this time. That’s the position, and that’s clear,” the Vice President said. 

Hicken and Brutus submitted their project summaries to the EPA with the hope of securing their Environmental Permits to advance their applications for Mining Permits from GGMC. 

The published applications raised eyebrows among law enforcement officers since the two were seeking to enter into the mining business while still serving in the top brass of the Police Force.

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