The Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) is protesting a draft regulation to grant non-nationals licences for small and medium-scale claims, stating that these should remain solely for Guyanese.

At a meeting held on Friday at the association’s office in Quamina Street, GGDMA Executive Secre-tary Edward Shields said that through the draft regulations, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) was making an attempt to open small and medium claims to foreigners. The current situation is that these claims are accessible only by Guyanese, and that foreigners can only access large-scale claims.

Non-nationals are allowed to access small and medium claims if they do so within a joint-venture arrangement with Guyanese. Shields made the point that a neutral committee should have been the one to write the draft regulation and not the GGMC itself, stating that they should not be the writers and the enforcers of the regulations at the same time.

He said that a technical team is examining the regulations and is to make recommendations on it.

After the technical team is finished, there will be a workshop for those in the mining fraternity to get views on the draft before it is finalised, Shields said.

He had said at an earlier forum that this could prove disastrous for Guyanese miners if the regulations were enacted.

He said it appeared that the new development was being pushed by the World Bank to open up small and medium-scale claims to foreigners.

The World Bank, in a recent draft report, stated that although Guyana had no limit on foreign-equity participation and screening of foreign investors, there was a need to remove the restriction on foreign investors owning medium claims between 14,000-27,000 acres.

Shields contended that the GGMC is trying to take the place of the Ministry of Home Affairs in determining who is a citizen and who is not. He said that the GGMC has added a new category of persons eligible for citizenship, meaning persons who are here and are working because of their economic circumstances are considered citizens. Persons are considered Guyanese through birth or naturalisation.

“The article [of the regulation] states that these [claims] are for Guyanese,” Shields said in the meeting which had over 40 attendees, including members and non-members.

He stated also that the GGMC is eying the introduction of a two-year retention licence, which is a concern for those who would have had a prospecting licence and have finished prospecting, but do not have the money to commence mining and may want to sell the land. He said that during the two years, the data which would have been accumulated while prospecting would be made available to others and anyone could then apply for a licence to mine on that land, however, the original prospector will be given the ‘right of refusal’. “[The new party] can make an offer for the land and you will have to match it,” Shields said, adding that no one should be able to apply for a licence for land on which someone had prospected.

The association also has concerns about the high penalties which some of them described as “draconian” for offences in the field of mining. Shields said the draft regulations state that a person who mines without a permit can be fined $25,000 in addition to five years in jail.

Another issue that the GGDMA has raised is that of the GGMC telling miners how to conduct their affairs by saying how they must negotiate with their employees or partners. “The GGMC has nothing to do with a private arrangement. They can’t say how much you must pay somebody,” Shields said.

He said also that the new trend in the mining industry is that of the Commissioner of Mines authorising his officers to give miners a monthly production book in which they must make all their takings known to the GGMC. He stated that only the Form 14 is required for the conveyance of their gold. “You do not even have to declare it (the gold).

If you are searched and they find gold then you have to produce your permit,” he stated, adding that mines officers have no powers outside of the mine station. This, he said, was in reference to instances where such officers were placed at the Ogle Aerodrome to inspect miners’ belongings on their return from the interior. (Johann Earle)