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Feb 22, 2017 Letters
Dear Editor,
In a KN article published on the 12th of February, 2017, “Unfair land Management systems exists at GGMC”- Minister Broomes, the Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, used a flawed example of the ‘small miner” approaching to pay after the due date but is told that they cannot pay while the “big miner” with hundreds of mineral properties will turn up after ten, fifteen or even twenty years of not paying and their payment is accepted.
It is imperative that the honourable Minister, familiarize herself with this particular process. The cancellation of mineral properties is approved by the Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment and is published in the official gazette. Only the subject Minister has the authority to restate the property and wavier the penalties associated with the late payments.
If the cancelled list of abandoned or expired properties is not sent to the Minister, GGMC has always been accommodating to allow persons to pay for the property with the penalties. Once cancelled, only the Minister has the authority to re-allocate those lands. It is well known that both the current and previous ministers had granted approval for some of those cancelled properties to be reinstated once they are satisfied that the explanation given is reasonable.
In some cases, before the property expires, the property owners would plea the Minister to facilitate late payment. If the acceptance of late payment, as the minister stated is a humongous problem, then GGMC should cancel all the properties at the expiry date and let the chips fall where they may.
From the article, it can be easily deduced that the issue is more about “big miners” with hundreds of mineral properties and “small miners” with who are presumable disenfranchised. This is not a fair comparison since they both carry out the same kind of mining commonly referred to as land dredging or river dredging on relatively the same scale.
However, some miners have more than one operations and are able to reduce the risk of financial losses due to their ability to “spread” while those miners with one operation has a higher risk of failure.
The success of any mining venture is the ownership of mineral properties. It still baffles the mind that persons will commit to millions of dollars in investment without having their own mineral properties with proven reserves. Mining is like any other business- it should be done with proper assessment/feasibility before any investment in equipment is made. When it is done without adequate evaluation it can be categorized as gambling.
The concept of “small miners” and “big miners” should be changed to “successful” and “unsuccessful” miners. The now “big” miners were once “small” miners and went through all the appropriate processes over a very long period of time with lots of challenges to reach where they are today. It is imperative that all miners work together for the common good of the sector and the country as a whole.
Segregation of miners based on the number of mineral properties one has in comparison to others or amount of operations is not in the best interest for the sector that has been contributing significantly to the GDP of Guyana over the past years.
The approach going forward is to have dialogue with all miners, their representative, the government and relevant stakeholders to find common ground to ensure that the sector continues its contribution to the economy. In closing, miners should be facilitated to allow the sharing of information on best practice techniques for prospecting, mining, processing and environmental management. Segregation will only lead to confusion and hostility towards each other. The mining fraternity needs to ameliorate, more than ever, to face the ever present challenges associate with these types of ventures.
Members of the GGDMA
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