Interim Committee managing Linmine
By Patrick Denny
Stabroek News
February 13, 2003
A joint management committee has been set up to help stabilise the operations of Linmine until its privatisation is finalised later this year.
The committee comprises three officials each from Linmine and the Canadian company Cambior, the parent company of Omai Gold Mines Limited (OMGL). To ensure accountability the officials will be reporting to their respective boards of directors. Cambior is taking an 80 per cent stake in the restructured Linmine operations with the government retaining the other 20 per cent.
The objective of the committee is to retain Linmine’s share of the bauxite market and to keep the operations viable until the required financing is in place and the privatisation process is finalised.
Stabroek News understands that during this month, a bankable feasibility study will be submitted to the international financial institutions for funding to raise US$20M. The World Bank’s Inter-national Finance Corporation is expected to provide US$10M and the remainder will be raised from a commercial bank. The total sum is to be used to purchase mining machinery and for working capital. The restructured Linmine will be expected to repay the US$20M by the tenth year of operation.
Until Linmine is fully privatised, the joint management committee will oversee the Linmine operations with Cambior providing assistance in the areas of metallurgical recovery, material handling, preventative maintenance as well as ensuring kiln availability and efficiency.
Under this arrangement Cambior will also be responsible for the services of the experts required and whatever investment the committee approves.
Last month as part of this exercise, Omai Gold Mines Limited began mining and stripping operations on contract to re-establish the required lead time between stripping and mining. For these operations Omai has rehired about 35 of the 182 workers whose services were terminated at the end of January.
These 35, according to Archibald Andrews, general secretary of the Guyana Mine and Metal Workers Union were workers with specific skills in the electrical and other related fields and in the de-watering operations.
He said the workers were on contract and that the contracts would come to an end when the divestment of Linmine was complete. The planned deadline for the completion of the divestment process is mid-May.
Andrews said that he understood that their pay was the same as when they were employed by Linmine save for an additional $400 a day for transportation and they are now responsible for getting to work on time. Under Linmine, Sparta Global Enterprises was contracted to transport the workers with a penalty clause in its contract if they failed to do so.
Andrews said the contract workers do not enjoy any sickness benefits and the union was now seeking recognition from Omai to represent them.
The restructured Linmine operations will employ just about 400 of Linmine’s 1,250 workforce. The government will be responsible for the severance payment of the rest, according to the Cambior plan.
The plans for the restructured company call for the introduction of mullite-based products and kaolin as well as other grades of refractory products made by the same process that generates Linmine’s present product line.
Preliminary talks with a company in the field indicate an interest in a strategic alliance to develop mullite-based products. The company has a well-equipped research facility and knowledge to develop mullite products.
