GGDMA sets 460,000 ounces gold production target for 2013

Mar 05, 2013 News

Members of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) have set themselves the task of producing a minimum of 460,000 ounces of gold this year.
The declared production at the end of February was 50,000 ounces.  President of the GGDMA Mr. Patrick Harding declared that this shows that production is on track.
Small and medium scale miners produced  438,646 ounces of the precious metal last year, registering the highest ever production of gold by these categories of miners.
Mr. Harding said that the GGDMA will be giving priority to finding newer and more effective ways of processing gold to ensure higher rates of recovery this year.
He said, “Our members know how to extract gold but they have not perfected the recovery system. They extract tons of ore; they pass it through the sluice box and here they are losing 56 per cent of the gold to the environment.”
He stressed that the GGDMA will this year focus on how to enhance gold recovery from the sluice box.
“If our miners  can increase that recovery to 80 per cent then they will be able to double production, improve their business and be better able to do  the backfilling and all the  environmental friendly things they need to do after the area is mined out.”
He said that the GGDMA will be actively looking for new processing technologies, the prices of which are within the reach of the local miners, and the operations of which are environmentally friendly.
The GGDMA is also currently talking with the commercial banks to see if they will provide loans to members so that they can acquire these   new technologies.