Prime Minister Sam Hinds has requested the Aroaima Bauxite Company (ABC) and the Berbice Mining Enterprise (Bermine) to begin looking at undeveloped ore bodies which could be made available to continued ABC operations.

Prime Minister Hinds is in the process of concluding agreements with ABC contractors and main stakeholders that would allow it to continue beyond December 31.

The contractors with whom the agreements are being concluded are Boskalis, Viceroy Shipping and J. P. Knight. The Prime Minister has also announced agreement with ABC's sole customer, BPU-Reynolds, for the supply of some 1.2 million metric tonnes of metal grade bauxite at a price of US$17.14 per tonne. The agreement with the contractors is part of the effort to cut ABC's cost of production from US$30 per tonne to US$20 per tonne.

He said that the agreements were likely to include provisions that would allow for their review and renewal at the end of next year.

Speaking with the Stabroek News on Saturday, Hinds said that he had made the request of ABC and Bermine cognisant of the indication by the Bermine Employees Group that a "new" Bermine would be willing to make available to ABC ore reserves that would allow it to continue for at least fifteen years.

Another consideration which prompted his request, according to the Prime Minister, is that there is need for at least a two-year lead for planning to open up new mining areas.

The Prime Minister said that while he has not seen the latest proposal of the Bermine Employees Group he did not believe that his move would in anyway undermine its proposal to take over Bermine.

The proposal has been sealed since it was handed to the bauxite negotiating committee which has not met since around the last week of August. Stabroek News understands that the Bermine Employees Group has recently asked for their proposal to be unsealed. The committee had been requested not to unseal the proposal until Alcoa had submitted its refined offer that would have been the basis of the negotiations with the bauxite team.

Alcoa has since indicated it no longer wanted to continue its association with ABC which it considers a loss-making venture.

In its concept paper, Alcoa, which manages ABC had proposed the merger of ABC and Bermine's Kwakwani operations in a new mining venture in which the staff of the two entities would have been reduced from about 940 to 400 over a three-year period with the Everton operations of Bermine being closed down immediately.

The Bermine Employees Group in its original proposal to the Bauxite Resuscitation Committee wants the government to sell its shareholding to the workers and plans to form an alliance with a strategic partner. The strategic partner would finance its acquisition of new equipment as well as fund the recruitment of identified technical staff. In return, the partner would be given marketing rights for its production as well as first refusal of its entire bauxite production.