Gold production in Guyana for the year 2010 closed off at 308,000 ounces on December 31st.
And Commissioner of Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) William Woolford said the medium and small- scale producers are on a firm footing for even higher levels of production in 2011.
The 308,000 ounces match that of the record-breaking production in 2009 and is in excess of the 280,000 ounces budgeted for 2010 by the Gold Board.
Reacting to the production figure, Woolford congratulated the small and medium-scale miners for their consistently high production.
He also commended the dealers for their role in the achievement.
Woolford said he was convinced that the local mining industry is entering 2011 on a solid footing
He said in the last half of 2010, GGMC had maintained a sustained effort  to reach and give  technical assistance to miners.
“We worked closely with the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners (GGDMA), representatives of the miners, on that technical programme and it worked well.”
He added, “I want to celebrate the fact that the GGDMA is in alignment with the GGMC  on the matter of collaboration to bring technical inputs into the mining industry.”
He said that the GGMC/ GGDMA collaboration will be further enhanced this year with a resultant positive impact on productivity and best practices in the industry.
The GGMC, he said, was looking forward to further improvements in the industry this year, especially in the areas of exploration, health and safety, environmental management and   processing and recovery of gold.
Recovery of gold depending on sluice boxes alone is generally around 33%.
The GGMC will assist miners this year to aim for 90% recovery of the gold passing through their processing equipment.
“This level of recovery is unprecedented, but it is achievable,” Woolford said yesterday.
He said that all the GGMC was asking of miners was for them to check the grain size of the gold being processed, so that there could be re-processing of the tailings to enhance recovery rates.
“If they achieve 30% recovery through the sluice boxes, then they can use another method like the centrifugal concentrator to get an additional 30%, and then process the same tailings to get another 30%, using chemicals such as cyanide, if necessary.”
He said,”We are hoping that they would target themselves to use  technological and procedural methods to get 90% recovery; it wouldn’t happen overnight, but this is where we are pointing them and we will be there to assist whenever necessary.”
Prices of gold on the international market remained high throughout the year.
The price in January 2010 was US$1120 per ounce, against US$869 per ounce in January 2009.
It remained high throughout 2010, peaking at   US$1420 per ounce in early December, and was at US$1402 per ounce yesterday.