Brazilian miners behind gold and diamond boom
- bring energy and new technology, says GGMC’s Benn
Stabroek News
January 26, 2003
Brazilian miners have contributed significantly to the record gold and diamond production of last year despite many of them being unregistered.
Presenting the 2002 review of the mining industry on Friday, Robeson Benn, Commissioner of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) told reporters that in December, only about 520 foreign miners held certificates of registration although there were about 1200 Brazilians working the fields at that time.
According to Benn, the GGMC’s record is based on the certificates of registration issued.
“At the last count in December, [there] were about 560 Brazilians in the fields... So on the record, there are about 40 or so, who would have been advised and, who would have had to come to Georgetown to be regularised and be issued with a certificate of registration if they wanted to remain. There is the feeling - based on the time the registrations or visas would have run out and movements over the borders of people and lapses in terms of identifying all of the people - that the amount of foreign nationals who are here, largely for mining [and] mostly garimperos, are somewhere in the order of just over 1000 persons. I think there are no more than 1200 here,” Benn told reporters.
This, however, does not seem to be a major concern for the GGMC, since according to Benn, the Brazilian miners bring to the industry much needed technology.
“I think that because these persons are a highly visible minority, there seems to be, always, a case being made that we are being overwhelmed, or swamped, in terms of the number of Brazilians. I don’t think we have that situation at all.”
Asked to what extent last year’s increase in gold and diamond production could be credited to the presence of the Brazilian miners in the industry, the Commissioner told reporters: “I think it is very significant. I wouldn’t, at this time, want to quantify, in terms of percentage. I would say particularly in the area of diamonds, we have been dependent, in terms of adapting different technology in the diamond field, on what the Brazilian garimperos have brought to us. This is usually gravel pumping units, with a hydraulic pump and a jig for the processing and recovery of the diamonds. The Brazilians are very, very energetic. They also have ancillary support services... and they have constructed a lot of trails and roads in the interior, which have helped greatly in stimulating the industry.”
Benn pointed to the development of places such as Kurupung, which he said, was “dead” two to three years ago. According to him, Kurupung became a boomtown over the past two years.
“But the impact is very, very significant in terms of the technology. The investment which they have made, and the energy and insight which they have brought to the industry, we are very grateful for it.”
There seems to be the feeling that Guyana stands to lose a lot with the opening up of mining areas in Brazil.
“We run the risk, maybe, of losing those Brazilians back to their country, along with their equipment and investment and energy.
But I want to stress that we want to continue to work with the Ministry of Home Affairs to ensure that we get as much of them, or nearly all of them, registered and properly authenticated. But in the circumstance of the field and, given the nature of the extremely large and long borders that we have with Brazil, Venezuela and Suriname (because they have been coming sometimes from all directions) that there will always be a certain percentage of these people who would not be documented at a particular point in time, or who would be arriving and would have to go to places where they would have to be documented.”
