THE government and a broader group of miners are seeking greater clarity on the way forward to address environmental and other concerns in the sector, Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon said yesterday. He referred to the reconciliation between miners and the administration from a meeting Thursday at the International Convention Centres at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara where President Bharrat Jagdeo reiterated that the government does not intend to shut down mining.
“It’s good to step back on occasions like these when the lack of clarity is obviously a contributory factor and to ensure mechanisms are put in place to obtain greater clarity”, Luncheon said.
At his weekly post-Cabinet pres briefing at the Office of the President complex in Georgetown, he noted that at the Thursday consultation, Mr. Jagdeo decided to let a special committee expand its mandate and continue looking at the initial proposals that triggered street protests in mining communities in Bartica, Port Kaituma and Mahdia.
“Essentially at this point, we are moving ahead with further discussions on options to be adopted later”, he explained.
Luncheon noted that recommendations to bring mining practices more in line with acceptable standards have come from different interest groups.
The administration’s recommendations are in sync with undertakings made about environmental concerns and specifically in terms of the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) and the Guyana-Norway agreement, he said.
The Cabinet Secretary said some categories of miners had specific reactions to the original recommendations and these are to be considered.
He said the continuation of the life of the special committee and the expansion in its mandate to meet all categories of miners, are intended to bring on board those who either have failed to make contributions, or are not satisfied with the levels of contributions they have made, and to continue the discussions and revisit the entire issue,
Luncheon said the Thursday meeting “attentively dealt” with many matters of concern of miners, other users of the natural resources and the government as the administrator and regulator.
The verdict was that the outcome was resoundingly positive, confirming the merits of extensive consultation among stakeholders, he reported.
“It was also felt that the handling of the matters that arose was executed properly by the President – matters including the moratorium, the quality of service of mines officials, environmental degradation and land use conflict among forestry and mining operatives”, he told reporters.
President Jagdeo made it clear at the Thursday session with a large turnout of miners that he is in favour of mining activities being conducted anywhere in Guyana, where minerals can be found, but such activities must be done in a practical manner.
To this end, the President mandated that the special committee established to look into mining issues with a view to having the sector regulated be expanded to include representation from small miners in areas such as Mahdia and Bartica.
He has also proposed to meet a representative grouping from the miners in another three months.
The mining community is claiming to have a grouse with a number of the recommendations proposed by the Special Land Use Committee which was set up by the President himself, in particular one dealing with a notice requirement which did not go down well with the operators in the mining community.
Alluding at times to earlier remarks by Prime Minister Sam Hinds, who has direct responsibility for mining, and Minister of Public Works Robeson Benn, President Jagdeo told the miners that changes in the mining sector are inevitable.
This, he noted, is necessary if the focus is to shift from day to day operation to one of long term, to include expansion.
Under an agreement signed last November in the Rupununi to support the LCDS, Norway has agreed to provide Guyana with up to US$250M until 2015 under verifiable benchmarks aimed at avoiding deforestation and forest degradation.