Ahead of mercury ban…
PRIME Minister Samuel Hinds has challenged gold and diamond miners to embrace changes which would lead to greater productivity, lower
costs of production and smaller environmental footprints, particularly in relation to mercury. “Medium and small scale miners must change, to the extent that all Guyanese must have positive feelings whenever they hear
or think about the local mining industry,” he told the participants at a one-day seminar on eco-friendly mineral processing systems,
conducted on Thursday last in the Rupununi Room of Hotel Tower, Main Street.
It was hosted by Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), in collaboration with Crown Mining Supplies, of Lot 9 East
Half, North Road, Bourda, Georgetown. The main aim was to show and tell miners about non chemical, non mercury and environmentally
friendly equipment, which could increase the recovery of gold and diamonds from mined materials.
The programme focused on the use and capabilities of gravity concentrators, specifically the KNelson Centrifugal type, which
are touted as being capable of achieving 88 per cent recovery of fine gold.
In the feature address, Mr. Hinds endorsed the use of equipment which could modernise the local gold and diamond mining
industry.

Some of the participants at the mining seminar.

He said the increasingly smaller size of grains of gold being encountered necessitated the usage of equipment which could
capture them, as against the generally prevailing situation in which they are lost.
The Prime Minister said such equipment would lower expenditure on production, so that operators can maintain their
operations in the event of a drop in gold prices, while, at the same time, enabling them to cope with the aftermath of the ban on mercury as a processing chemical, by 2013.
The key resource persons were metallurgical engineers, Mr. Kevin Peacocke of Zimbabwe and Colombian, Ms. Claudia Lopez, of Nelson’s Gravity Solutions Research and Development Department while those participating included miners, GGMC staffers and University of Guyana (UG) students.
During their presentations, both Peacocke and Lopez utilised pictures, power point presentations and video clips to
demonstrate the utility of the KNelson concentrator as a non chemical method of recovering with a high rate of recovery.
They also fielded questions about the equipment which, they said, is employed in gold mining operations all over the world
and said costs could be determined after the specific needs of the user are addressed, ranging from as low as US$4,500 to a high of
US$216,000.

Meanwhile, it was disclosed, yesterday, that recovery of gold, using sluice boxes is, presently, generally, around 33 per
cent of the mined materials, with most of the precious mineral escaping into the tailings.
Through seminars, such as that on Thursday, GGMC is, however, aiming at 90 per cent recovery, a rate which would triple the
amount of gold produced in this country, Acting Commissioner William Woolford said.
The Thursday event was followed yesterday with field demonstrations of the KNelson concentrator at the site of the former
Omai Gold Mines.
A similar exercise is scheduled for today at Mahdia, in Region Eight (Potaro/Siparuni).