Govt. projecting 2.1% growth in gold sector despite steep decline in declaration 

Sep 05, 2024 News

The Brazilians’ illegal mining operations.

Kaieteur News – Although Guyana is faced with the decline of gold declaration, with this year decreasing by 10.3 percent when compared with the previous year, the Government of Guyana has reported that the sector is projected to grow by 2.1 percent in 2024.

As at the end of June 2024, gold declarations stood at 188,160 ounces with the 35.3 percent increase in declarations from the lone large producer, undermined by lower declarations from small- and medium-scale producers, according to the Ministry of Finance Mid-Year Report.  “Declarations from the latter fell from 159,084 ounces in the first half last year, to 119,603 ounces at the end of June this year,” the Mid-Year Report stated.

To this end, within the first three months of 2024, the Bank of Guyana (BoG) reported that gold declaration fell to 89,845.8 troy ounces, when compared to the same period last year. It was stated that the dip in the gold declaration was mainly due to lower declarations from small- and medium-scale miners by 24.2 %.  It was explained that the lower declaration is as a result of prolonged dry weather which made access to water limited in many mining areas.

Guyana’s depleting gold declaration over the years

Notably, it was stated that the sole large-scale operator, Aurora Gold Mine Inc. (AGM), Zijin Mining’s, recorded an increase in declarations by 5.2%, which resulted from continued favourable performance in their underground mining operations.

In Guyana’s gold industry, there has been a noticeable decline in declarations over the past several years.  Kaieteur News had reported that from 2019 to 2023, gold declarations dropped by approximately 209,000 troy ounces, according to the BOG annual reports. With Guyana’s gold declarations dropping by approximately 209,000 troy ounces over the past five years, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had expressed the Government of Guyana’s concern about this trend.  He had warned that strict penalties would be imposed on those found guilty of under-reporting gold declarations to evade taxes and royalties. Jagdeo said at one of his previous press conferences, “We are still very concerned about what is happening in the market,” adding, “We believe that there are people that are not selling to the Gold Board to avoid taxes and we believe at that time that it was organised and that it was having an impact.”

Furthermore, gold smuggling results in a loss of royalties and taxes to the country. For the past 20 years, Guyana has been receiving either 5-8% royalties from gold operations.

Meanwhile, recently six Brazilians were arrested by the joint services and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) for illegal mining in Guyana. In a press release, the Guyana Police Force had said that the six Brazilian nationals (four males and two females) were arrested for illegal mining in the Amatuk Potaro River, Region 8.

• declaration, decline, gold, Jagdeo, Mid-Year Report