Mining during the year improved as a reputable sector, bringing employment to many and contributing to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However the rules and regulations governing the sector were solidified in keeping with Guyana’s pathway to development with the forest being at the centre.
The year marked a turning point for the electricity sector with the Guyana Power and Light’s old image fading into the dark, making way for a new one.

MINING
A record-breaking 300,000 ounces of gold was declared for 2009 owing to the efforts of small and medium scale gold miners who continued to be the driving force behind this important revenue generator to the economy.

A miner demonstrating the art of batelling for gold.

The year 2009 began on a good note for the gold mining sector. Whereas production targets for gold in 2008 reached 260,000 ounces, at the end of the first quarter gold declarations reached over 78,000 ounces, and 130,220 ounces by the first half of 2009.

Additionally, the royalty contributions were estimated at $497M at the end of the first quarter of the year. Such an amount exceeded projections by 12 percent.

The leaps which the gold mining sector witnessed at such an early part of the year can best be attributed to the high gold prices and influx of miners.

In 2008 an estimated 25 per cent of export earnings came from gold mining alone. Over the past 10 years, the gold and diamond sector contributed more to the GDP than sugar.

Mining, one of the largest contributors to the country’s GDP occurs in six regions of Guyana, classified as mining districts. These are the North West, Berbice, Cuyuni/Mazaruni, Potaro, Rupununi, and Linden.

Only recently, however, Guyana Goldfields – a Canadian-based mining exploration company disclosed that a new area located at Aurora along the Cuyuni River in Region Seven holds enough potential to become Guyana’s seventh mining district. The company submitted a preliminary environmental assessment to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) outlining its plans for the development of the mine.

A gold miner using the hydraulic technique.

The project site is sub-divided into three locations; Mad Kiss, Aleck Hill and Rory’s Knoll. The latter is considered the core of the project site and is where the bulk of the mineralised contents are, pyrite (a common mineral, found in a wide variety of geological formulation from sedimentary deposits) and gold.

Guyana Goldfields recently undertook a CDN$2M investment project that involves sediment sampling, trenching, and drilling.

Omai Gold Mines Limited mine site closed
The year 2009 marked the final chapter in the life of OMAI Gold Mines Limited mine site. The industry which made a 16-year contribution to the gold mining sector was officially handed over to the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) in March.

The termination of the mineral agreement and the voluntary relinquishing of the mining licence were sealed following the joint agreement by the Office of the Prime Minister, the GGMC and the EPA in April 2008.

Under the closure accord, the company is required to restore the area under a “back to nature” plan. However, government requested that this plan be changed to an “after use” approach which would see the retention and further development of internal roads, land, airport, power plant, camp site facilities, and possible invitation of other mining companies to re-evaluate its underground mining possibilities.

Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and officials of GGMC and GGDMA at a discussion forum.

From its operations in 2005, the company succeeded in the production of approximately 3.8 million ounces of gold and also spearheaded the first large scale cyanide extraction in 1993.

Improving mining practices
The campaign by the GGMC for miners to be more lawful in their practices has been intensifying as Guyana seeks to maintain its status as a country that respects its natural resources.

More importantly the low ca
rbon course which Guyana has taken requires stricter monitoring and regulation of the sector.

Several stakeholders of the GGMC and the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) and the mining community held meetings to review the sector for alignment with the revolutionary Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).

Following a meeting with President Bharrat Jagdeo and 20 leading gold and diamond miners a welcoming proposal was made for miners to comply with the following: coordination with the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) before any indiscriminate cutting of trees, prospecting before mining and restoration of mined out areas at the medium-scale level.

A prepaid meter

It was also agreed that a joint committee would be established to review and elaborate on the proposals, comprising representatives of GGMC, GGDMA and four from the mining sector

ELECTRICITY
Introducing prepaid meters
The year began with a promise by the government to reduce technical and commercial losses with the replacement of standard meters with the installation of prepaid meters.

By May the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) company embarked on a prepaid meter installation pilot project targeting sections of Kitty, North Ruimveldt, and Bourda Market and Black Bush Polder in Region Six as the initial beneficiaries.

The company had set out to install about 2,000 meters during the pilot phase which followed a number of community engagements on the new technology. GPL had discussed at many levels, including at press conferences, consultations with residents and in Parliament, its intention to commence the pilot project.

The technology also has a wide range of features such as a built in alarm mechanism, an electricity duration indicator and other services that would update the customer on a timely basis.

The new Kingston Power plant

A prepaid meter.
The new technology is the latest in prepaid service, and allows customers to carefully manage their electricity, particularly in cases where persons find it difficult to pay an entire month’s bill at one time.

The process was running smoothly until August, when some residents of Festival City took protest action to express their concerns about the integrity of the installation process.

The method of implementation was reviewed and the decision taken to install the new meters on the residences of all directors, executive managers and employees of the GPL board.

By September, GPL reported that some customers had been responding favourably to the installation process which was being offered on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Customer Information System (CIS)
In August the power company began putting systems in place to improve the quality of service to customers and responsiveness to their request with the introduction of a state of the art Customer Information System (CIS) to replace the twenty-year-old billing system.

The new technology which costs US$2.8M is scheduled to come into effect in April 2010 and will ensure data accuracy and integrity and integration of cash receipting.

President Bharrat Jagdeo, CEO, GPL Bharrat Dindyal and Prime Minister Samuel Hinds tour the new Kingston Power plant.

The project was funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) under the Unserved Areas Electrification Programme (UAEP) as part of the company’s loss reduction investment programme.

In addition, the new system will allow the commercial staff at all eight locations countrywide to have up-to-date information on all GPL’s customers and allow new payments to be immediately credited to customers’ accounts.

New Power Plant
December 4 was a landmark day for the electricity sector and the Demerara County with the commissioning of the 20.7 megawatt Wartsila power plant at Kingston.

The US$27.5M plant, which adds 30% to the generating capacity of the Demerara network, will significantly reduce the incidences of power outages and, according to President Bharrat Jagdeo is part of Government’s plan to catapu
lt Guyana to the next level of growth and development, given that power is an important requisite for economic activity.

The new facility was built with three 6.9MW Wartsila turbine generators, a control room, radiators and a fuel treatment house.

The three Wartsila generators inside the new Kingston Power plant.

Fuelled with Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) the new plant increased its generation capacity and at the same time is significantly reducing operational costs.

Over the past several years, Government invested US$125M into the power company, as a result, with an additional US$15M invested in fuel subsidies in 2007 and 2008 when the world price for fuel had risen significantly. This ensured that electricity rates remained relatively stable.

The interconnection drive also catered for the power link from Skeldon to the Number 53 substation to the Onverwagt station on the West Coast Berbice.

Moreover, the Kingston plant was interconnected to the Sophia substation via transmission lines that were strung along the Lamaha railway embankment. The initiative was part of a major project to integrate all operating systems. This process however came at the cost of prolonged period of power outages.

A CGX Energy Inc oil rig.

Government was given a US$39.6M boost from the Chinese Exim Bank that will be invested by GPL in the interconnection drive.

The grant was made a reality, with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Guyana Government and the Governor of the China Exim-Bank in September 2008 during President Jagdeo’s visit to China.

Upon approval of this proposed project, GPL will develop and expand its transmission and distribution system with the construction of 110 km of single circuit 69 kilovolt sub-stations, the expansion and upgrading of two existing 69/13.8 kilovolt substations and installation of a fiber optic network and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system for tele-marketing and protection.

Rural Electrification
Under the rural electrification programme, a pilot project which was done in Wowetta, Region Nine equipped the community with solar power lighting, a community shop, a water pump and a joinery shop.

Lighting was provided for 49 homes, each of which consisted of a solar panel, deep cycle battery, charge controller and a solar powered freezer. The community shop was given freezer, a solar panel with a water pump, and a cassava chopper/grinder

The 49 households were required to repay the cost of the component within 48 months.

Oil exploration continues
CGX Energy Incorporated, the Canadian-based oil and gas exploration company that is in search of petroleum offshore Guyana made a commitment to commence drilling for oil as early as 2010.

The company was given the green light to commence operations uninterrupted, after the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) granted the Maritime Arbitration Award to Guyana in 2007 following the long unsettled border issue with neighbouring Suriname in 2000.

Since then the CGX Energy Incorporated has done a significant degree of work and has gone ahead in its plans to commence drilling.

In January, the company completed shooting of the 1,839 square kilometre, 3D seismic survey on CGX’s 25% Georgetown Petroleum Prospecting Licence (PPL).

A study had concluded that Guyana is the second most attractive under-explored basin in the world with a potential of 15.2 billion barrels of oil. Were an oil discovery to be made in the Guyana Basin, production targets would be estimated at 50 million barrels per year which would be equivalent to 140,000 barrels per day.