–Thompson tells miners’ outreach

GENERAL MANAGER of the Guyana Gold Board, Eondrene Thompson, on Saturday charged miners in the Bartica-Karrau area to sell their gold either to the Board or to licenced and authorised gold dealers, and to avoid selling to persons who “burn gold on the landings.”

Thompson was on Saturday addressing a number of small-scale gold miners at an outreach session hosted by the Guyana Gold Board (GGB), which saw support from the Ministry of Natural Resources’ Compliance Department, the mining syndicates, the Guyana Women Miners’ Organisation (GWMO) and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC).

This is said to be the first of a series of planned outreaches that the Board will have during 2018.
The objectives of the outreaches are to share the mandate of the Guyana Gold Board; to outline the requirements for the selling of gold, the roles and responsibilities of the Guyana Gold Board (GGB) with reference to the Anti-Money Laundering legislation and gold miners’ responsibilities, the benefits to gold miners for selling their gold to the Guyana Gold Board; and to register gold miners in the area in a newly created Guyana Gold Board database

Thompson charged the miners to make the GGB a part of their business dealings. “Some of you have never even visited the Guyana Gold Board…when you are doing business, it is expected that you do business the legal way.
“We have persons who are burning gold anywhere around the place. You sell to that person and you do not even have a receipt of what you sold. Perhaps you might say I just need the money or I just need the goods in exchange of my gold, but we are here to tell you that it goes way beyond that,” said Thompson.

Legal and Compliance Officer of the Guyana Gold Board, Stacey Weever, on Saturday warned miners in the Bartica-3 Miles-Karrau areas that they must share their information with the Board to allow the agency to properly carry out its mandate.
Explaining the necessity of compliance, Weever said that her department is responsible for documenting information on persons who sell and buy gold. “We are supposed to track the transaction from the time you enter to the time you leave, and have documents prepared that can identify you,” she said.
“Today we will be capturing information such as your name, your dredge documentation issued by the GGMC, your claim name, what your camp looks like, whether there is a manager for the camp, your identification documents such as national ID or passport and we ask that you share this with us,” said Weever.
In addition to the registration forms, the GGB distributed authorisation forms which can be issued by the claimholder if he or she cannot leave the mine site. The claim holder can then use that form to fill out authorising someone else to conduct business with the GGB on his or her behalf.
During the session, miners were warned against being enticed by unusually high prices for their gold, as this could possibly be proceeds of crime being laundered and for which the seller could be held liable under Anti-Money Laundering legislation.