When sir Walter Raleigh came to Guyana, which he referred to as El Dorado – the city of gold, expecting to find this precious metal lining the roads he was literally wrong but figuratively he was right because indeed its mineral potential and natural resources are indeed vast which could make this country a very wealthy one if fully developed. So far our mineral resources have remained largely untapped but in recent years there has been growing interest and investment by large mining companies.
Only a few months ago one company located uranium in large quantities and more recently an incredible discovery of high grade bauxite in commercial quantities has been made at Bonasika.
This discovery certainly will create exciting prospects not only for the national economy but for the community of Bonasika as well, which historically and still is a mainly agricultural one.
Mr. Woolford therefore correctly stressed that the Bonasika discovery was of great economic significance.
“First off, up to weeks ago, when people asked you about bauxite in Guyana, you would think: Linden and/or Kwakwani. Bonasika was unknown. Now you have to add Bonasika,” he said.
The consequent availability of over 200 jobs is just a hint of the benefits to be achieved by locals, if all goes as planned for FBC up to 2012, he added.
The find in this close-proximity area, and in surprising quantities, has caused the company to ask the government for a mineral agreement and whatever fiscal incentives are available so that they can put arrangements in place  to commence mining by 2012.
The First Bauxite Corporation (FBC) had been prospecting for bauxite for the past six years in Bonasika, an area where some amount of bauxite was discovered over 70 years ago, without the full extent of the deposits being realized.
The Canadian-based Company has submitted a full feasibility survey to the government and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), which says that it has found deposits which could support commercial production for over eight years at 100,000 tonnes of bauxite per year.
GGMC Commissioner, Mr. William Woolford, early last week confirmed receipt of the feasibility report indicating the amazingly high quality of bauxite at Bonasika so close to the mouth of the Demerara River and far away from the traditional areas of known high-quality bauxite deposits.
“They went in to see if they could get a small operation going. But as they worked at the small operation, they realised that more material was there than they had initially thought, so it turned out to be a bigger operation than they had envisaged,” Woolford said.
FBC, he disclosed, had found deposits of agglomerated high alumina calcined bauxite, over 60% alumina and had made these new deposits possible for development.
There is bauxite there that looks feasible to develop. The feasibility study says so, and it looks positive.
The company is requesting fiscal incentives to get operations started in 2012 and government should give serious consideration to this request so that the process could be expedited.
In the long term Guyana’s intention of eventually establishing an aluminum smelter plant could be boosted with this new source of bauxite bearing in mind that the Amaila Falls hydro project is expected to come on stream in a few years from now.
From a global perspective this discovery could also boost our share of the international market for refined bauxite as industrialisation in Asia is soaring and as such the demand for aluminum is growing rapidly.
Global aluminum demand is expected to grow at a stable rate of 4-5% this year, at the same time, the demand for Asia is projected to grow at 8-9% for the year. Hindalco, a flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group, happens to be one of the biggest players in aluminum and copper commanding a turnover of Rs 9,523.25 crore. With aluminum refining capacity of 455,000 TPY, the company happens to be one of the lowest cost producers of aluminum in the world. Apart from the semi-fabrication facilities for the production of value added products. The company has its own bauxite mines, alumina refinery, steam and power generation facilities and smelting units.
FBC’s description of the Bonasika project is therefore a most apt one: “Bonasika Project, High Grade Refractory Bauxite from Guyana: “An old favorite with a new address.”