– But it doesn’t have to be if miners think and mine responsibly

By Sara Bharrat

Part I – Forest-friendly Prospecting. Turning hope and chance into profit

For many small miners, gold work in Guyana is built on hope. Sometimes this hope is based on “an inside tip” or “a gaff” with somebody, who knows somebody else who knows a place where you can “mek it good in de gold bush”. Retired pork-knocker and small-scale miner Scotty (as he prefers to be identified) has witnessed this story play out many times since he moved to Mahdia more than a decade ago.

When gold prices go up, “we might find a man who got a piece of investment and he gon buy up this and buy up that and go in [the interior]. When you go now, you might see gold, but it can’t compensate [for your expenses].”

This story repeats itself in gold mining across the country. Residents of the coast, or foreigners from near and far, come to Guyana in search of gold. This “gold fever” is nothing new and is often credited with bringing European ships to these shores hundreds of years ago in search of El Dorado, the fabled lost city of gold. Nowadays, Guyanese with similar dreams of riches and making it big, often head into mining areas with little idea of what awaits in the “gold bush”. Many invest their savings or take loans and big chances in this search for a better life.

Gold mining is a key source of revenue for Guyana and employs directly and indirectly about 86,000 workers who would otherwise find it difficult to get work. Today, small- and medium-scale miners face many challenges – several of which Scotty identifies in his story – which are connected to a lack of awareness and unrealistic expectations among new miners.

“I see this happen with a guy that come from America,” Scotty recalled. “[He] come with bull dozer, excavator, big pick-up…and just flop, at one point I thought he woulda lose his mind, because you come with big vehicle and you go back walking.”

This case may be extreme but, even for small miners, the cost of investing in the sector is hefty. Today Guyana is pursuing a green, low carbon, climate-resilient approach to development, one that recognizes and values the importance of standing forests in responding to the global climate crisis. This will call for practical solutions to reducing the impact of sectors, like mining, which are the major drivers of forest clearance. One such approach would be to identify more efficient ways of recovering gold so that less damage is done to the environment, more gold is recovered and the area’s vegetation gets a chance to recover, either naturally or through active reforestation efforts. Affordable, low impact prospecting methods and technologies also help to remove some of the guesswork out of mining and ensures that when miners invest in an area, they will likely recover gold at a profitable scale.

But where do we start? And is it possible for us to pursue gold mining while conserving forests? After more than twenty years in the gold mining business, Scotty firmly believes that what makes or breaks a miner is the technology he uses. In his early days as a pork-knocker, his team used a test rod to assess whether an area was worth working. Larger companies, he explained, would go down deeper for soil samples to make an assessment. But for many small miners, prospecting equipment is either inaccessible or not part of their mining culture.

The need to balance economic development with the conservation of forests, water and other resources that support our way of life has never been greater. In responding to this challenge Conservation International – Guyana is working in collaboration with key partners from local communities, the private sectors, and government agencies to implement the El Dorado Gold – Responsible Mining for Guyana (RMI) initiative. This initiative seeks to address health and environmental impact, particularly deforestation and mercury use, throughout the various stages of the mining cycle. This work is still in its early stages but has already led to the building of partnerships among a diverse group of stakeholders. These groups, who are often seen as having conflicting interests, are now coming together around the need for environmentally and socially responsible mining.

One of the signature components of the Initiative is the Addressing Drivers of Deforestation (ADoD) Project, which aims to encourage improved practices in the sector and, ultimately, reduce pressure on forests through more sustainable livelihoods and improved wellbeing. The project, in part, supports the use of forest-friendly prospecting methods. These prospecting alternatives cost less money, require less time, and are less damaging to the environment, thereby ensuring that an area is worth working before it is cleared. Although efficient prospecting methods take much of the hope and chance out of gold mining and offer greater returns on investments, they are relatively new and require increased awareness, understanding and ultimately, behaviour change among miners. Realizing this behaviour change will be one of the biggest challenges in moving to more responsible mining, but it can be done.

As gold mining remains an important contributor to Guyana’s economy, the Initiative will continue to promote mining approaches that reduce the long-term damage to our forests and provide support to the people that depend on these resources. As Scotty puts it “Mining blind…is asking for all kinds of trouble.”

Finding practical and effective solutions to this challenge is also part of our responsibility to the generations to come; once the gold is gone, future Guyanese should still be able to benefit from our forests, rivers and the variety of services that they provide.
Next week read about Scotty’s hardships and successes in gold mining…

By Sara Bharrat
About El Dorado Gold – Responsible Mining for Guyana
El Dorado Gold – Responsible mining for Guyana is being implemented by Conservation International-Guyana in partnership with the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miner Association, the Guyana Women Miners’ Organisation and the National Toshoas Council. The initiative is funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation and the Global Environment Facility. Visit www.conservation.org.gy/project/El-Dorado-Gold to learn more.