AS Omai Gold Mines Limited (OGML) prepares to wrap up operations after 24 years of service in Guyana, Public Works Minister Robeson Benn has thanked the company for its consistent maintenance of the Mabura Road.The 65 miles of roadway starts at the Omai Junction and ends at Rockstone.

Omai has the maintenance contract for the road, which requires work to be done practically every day to make it trafficable, especially during the rainy season.

The services of Mabura residents are utilised in some aspects of the maintenance work, and when the company leaves, Government will take over the maintenance.
According to Benn, one of the indicators used for maintenance of the road, which stretches from Linden to Lethem, a distance of 276 miles, is that a traveller should not take more than 11 hours during a journey.
Benn said Government intends to make the passage a “tar road”, but pointed out that a study by Mott MacDonald estimated the project at around US$270 million.
Mott MacDonald is a global management, engineering and development consultancy adding value for public and private clients on agenda-setting, next-generation projects worldwide.
Currently, Benn said work is feasible only up to Demerara Timbers Limited (DTL).
Nevertheless, he said, things have changed significantly, pointing out that in his younger days, there was no road.
“I have seen a big change, the trail came through, the timber trail, the building of roads to DTL. Government had a contract with Paranapanema, a Brazilian company which pushed the road through,” he said.
Over the years, Government has progressively built the road, developing it to its current state, and Benn wants residents to expect a “blacktop road”(tar road) in the next 10 years.
INEVITABLE
He said this is inevitable, given the development in Brazil and Guyana, and the fact that “they want to get to the sea and take their stuff to Linden and Port Georgetown”. This, he said, will significantly increase traffic on the Linden to Lethem corridor.
Benn, who was at the time speaking to residents, teachers and students of Mabura Mission Annex, said Mabura has grown considerably over the past 20 years and urged the students to continue studying.
He told them that they are the ones who will be responsible for further development of the Region 10 community.
OGML Human Resource Manager Norman McLean said as the company departs Guyana on June 30, it is proud of its work on the road.
During the cyanide spill in the mid 1990s, he said the gold-mining company mobilised equipment and fixed the road, making it what it is today.
“The advent of Omai doing their operations and the fact that they had to haul all their fuel and supplies by road from Linden was a very important contributor to improving, maintaining the roads. They have built the road to high standards,” Minister Benn said.
He observed that there has been an upsurge in forestry activities and more loggers are trucking their goods using the Mabura Road.
On this point, Benn said the Government intends to introduce a toll on the road, so that persons engaged in forestry activities make a direct contribution to its maintenance.
Meanwhile, a second project by Omai at Karasabai/Monkey Maintain is expected to be completed by next month.
Omai, located in the Cuyuni-Mazaruni region, is one of the largest gold mines in Guyana and the world, with estimated reserves of 3.7 million ozs of gold.
On August 19, 1995, a tailings dam broke and leaked tailings into the Essequibo River, killing some 351 fish. A class action suit of $2 billion was filed against the mining company but the case was dismissed.

(By Tajeram Mohabir)