By Patrick Denny
Stabroek News
June 16, 2001

The residents and workers at Everton and Kwakwani will be allowed to determinine what option the government should accept to resuscitate the Berbice Mining Enterprise (Bermine).

President Bharrat Jagdeo told Stabroek News yesterday that he will be going to Everton and Kwakwani to put to the people the various options recommended to the government. The options were submitted by Alcoa, the government's partner in the Aroaima Bauxite Company (ABC), the management, workers of Bermine and the Joint Committee on the resuscitation of the bauxite industry.

Last month, President Jagdeo annnounced that while the government favoured the Alcoa proposal, he was prepared to consider any other plan, which was practical, viable and immediately implementable and would not be a burden on the Treasury. The government is concerned that Bermine has requested US$5.4 million in working capital this year and that it had made a loss last year.

Prime Minister Sam Hinds told the workers recently that the proposal by Alcoa presented the best opportunity for resuscitating the industry even though it meant the immediate loss of 270 jobs as a result of the closure of the operations at Everton. Alcoa's proposal will merge the operations of Bermine and ABC and there will be a contraction of the workforce from 944 to 400 in the first three years of the merger.

The workers and management of Bermine have rejected this proposal, arguing that it would not benefit the country or the workers. They contend that the proposal does not provide for any injection of new capital and that the government would be turning over some 100 million tonnes of proven, possible and probable reserves to a company which in each of the last five years has made a loss and has wracked up a debt over the 12 years of its existence of some US$57 million.

The workers contend that the better option would be to find a strategic partner who would inject working capital and provide assistance in marketing the company's bauxite. Moreover, they said that this option would not result in the closure of the Everton operations. The workers' option would also provide for Bermine to lease some of its reserves to Aroaima whose reserves would run out in another three years. Alcoa is reported to have said that if it did not have access to ore it would have to close its operations. Access to the Bermine reserves would allow it to stay in business.

The joint bauxite committee, set up by President Bharrat Jagdeo and PNC/R leader, Desmond Hoyte has submitted its report on the various proposals and options for the industry.