President commits $50M for Matthew’s Ridge to Port Kaituma road
– ‘I’m very disappointed this road was not built as yet…and this is because of ‘dilly-dallying’ in the Ministry of Public Works’ – President Jagdeo
AN approximately 50 km stretch of road linking the remote hinterland communities of Matthew’s Ridge and Port Kaituma in the North West of Guyana, Region One (Barima/Waini) is slated to be constructed soon, with a $50M contribution from the Government working in partnership with a Canada-based mining company currently  in the process of setting up a major large-scale manganese mining operation in the area. Following a programme-packed, one-day visit to Matthew’s Ridge on Tuesday last, President Bharrat Jagdeo told residents he is “very disappointed” that  the road has not been completed as yet, even though funds were allocated by the Government a few years ago.

“I am a bit disappointed that this road from Matthew’s Ridge to Port Kaituma was not built before because the Government has already assigned the money to do so,” the President said.

He noted that the building of the road was a promise made by the PPP/C administration in its 2006 elections Manifesto.

“…in our Manifesto for the last elections, we said we will spend $2B on hinterland roads. And this was one of  the roads identified.  We set aside the money three years ago, but until now it has not been spent,” Mr. Jagdeo candidly declared.

According to him, this was due to “dilly-dallying in the Ministry of Public Works”.

Stressing how “very disappointed” he was at this situation, Mr. Jagdeo said he has even resorted to “take away” the allocated money from the ministry and “hand it over to the Prime Minister”.

The road is not only beneficial to the residents in that Matarkai sub-region that encompasses both Matthew’s Ridge and Port Kaituma, but is also crucial to the expanding mining operation by Canada-based company, Reunion Manganese Inc., which is currently in the initial stages of investing heavily in the manganese-rich area of Matthew’s Ridge.

Senior officials from the company, who gave the President and his visiting team a guided tour – that was preceded by a power-point presentation – of the manganese mining operation in Matthew’s Ridge,  used the opportunity to lobby the President and his government to assist in the building of the road, with the assurance that the company will be responsible for maintaining and upgrading it.

The President, at a community meeting a few hours later, announced that since some money had already been allocated toward the road but which was not used, he has decided to commit $50M to this important project.

“Rather than  we split efforts, we can work together to build this road…so the government is going to contribute $50M to the road (and) Reunion Manganese Inc will be responsible for maintaining and fixing the  road,” the President said.

“This money is available now; in fact, it was available three years back and, I don’t want to use another  (stronger) word but I am disappointed that it has not happened (used towards the road)…,” the President said.

He noted that this “dilly dallying” by the Public Works Ministry is not peculiar only to this road, but to others as well. According to him, another important road was supposed to have been built in Region Nine and although money was allocated for this project, it was never done.

“The money was just sitting there…” the President lamented.

He, however, pointed out that sometime things like this happen whereby money is assigned in the Government for certain projects but they  never get implemented,  for one reason or the other.

“And guess who gets the blame,” the President declared to his audience, most of whom started to ‘grin’ as the realization dawned that, no matter what, it is he (Jagdeo) who always gets the blame.

“The road is very critical to this community and it is very critical to the operations of (Reunion  Manganese Inc), so we have to ensure that it is appropriately upgraded, and that this is done almost immediately,” he told the very appreciative residents.

REUNION MANGANESE INC.
In September last year, the Guyana Government awarded Reunion Manganese Inc. (RMI)  four (4) prospecting licences (PLs) to conduct exploration and development activities for manganese in the North West District, Region One (Barima/Waini).
The PLs cover an area of 45,729 acres and are centred in and around the abandoned manganese mine at Matthew’s Ridge and Pipiani which was operated by a subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation from 1962 to 1968.
The closure of the mine in 1968 was mainly due to the large fall in the price of manganese. In excess of 1.66 million tonnes of manganese concentrate were shipped from the mine site during that period.
The PLs were granted on September 6, 2010 for an initial period of three years and may be renewed for two additional periods of one year each. RMI may apply for a mining licence covering areas defined by the exploration effort during the exploration period after the submission of a positive feasibility study and an environmental impact statement and mine development plan.
Mr. David Fennell, Chairman of RMI told the Chronicle on Wednesday that close to US$6M has already been spent by the company so far, with an additional US$12.5M approved for spending between now and year end. Eventually, with expansion, the project might end up costing somewhere around US$150M to US$200M, he said.

Noting that studies began last year at the site, Fennell said the “whole process has been very positive so far”.

A very optimistic Fennell said the Matthew’s Ridge property and surrounding area have significant potential.

He said the infrastructure and the proximity of the project to transportation is a considerable advantage for the projects development and operation.

“We have been able to assemble a highly experienced team of professionals familiar with both manganese exploration and development, and development of mining projects in the Guiana Shield. The fact that there was an operation there in the past should reduce the exploration and development risk associated with projects of this type,” he stated.

PLANNED EXPLORATION PROGRAMME
The company is currently conducting an initial exploration programme which consists of pitting, trenching and drilling on the Matthew’s Ridge old mine area. The company believes that there is potential for substantial manganese resources in and around the Matthew’s Ridge deposits. This, allied with modern processing technology increases the chance of developing an economic manganese mining and processing operation in North West Guyana.
Reunion has already started the process of aggressively advancing the exploration and development efforts with a view to defining resources and identifying a development plan for the deposits of  Manganese – said to be the fourth largest metal consumed in the world, behind iron, aluminum and copper. Manganese is also a key component in steel and iron production and is in short supply.
Major General (Rt’d)  Mr. Norman McLean, who is a Consultant at RMI,  in remarks during the community meeting, made it clear that, had it not been for the direct intervention of His Excellency the President, then Reunion Manganese Inc would not have been able to even be at Matthew’s Ridge.

“I think it is because of the President’s initiative and taking what we would call the ‘bull by the horn’ to ensure that RMI is given the opportunity to explore for manganese here in Matthew’s Ridge,” McLean said to applause from the audience.

GLORY DAYS
Alluding to Matthew’s Ridge, President Jagdeo recalled that the area had its ‘glory days’ when the manganese mining operation  was up and running, an operation that has since “died down”,  which was part of the general trend countrywide during the (mis)rule of the previous administration.

“During that period, we started living above our means, eating more than we produce; and if you consume more than you produce, as an individual or as a country, you will have to borrow to sustain that lifestyle. And that’s what Guyana did, leaving us with a huge foreign debt burden to carry and which this generation, until recent years, had to pay back.

“So we have moved from paying 94% of revenue toward servicing debts in 1992 to now 4% of the debts…but do you know how we got there? First of all, aggressively, we got some (debt) write-offs, and we paid back over US$1.6B  (more than Gy$300B) since we got into office.
“This is money that we had to pay abroad rather than spend on our people,” the Guyanese Head of State contended.

“We have struggled over the past several years. We are now seeing our way. Things have gotten better in our country. We can pay more of our own way, we don’t have to borrow that much and this is why we are aggressively pursuing a whole new range of investments. We are trying to make sure that the hinterland communities can move parallel to the coastal communities (in terms of development),” Mr. Jagdeo posited.

While admitting that coastal communities will always have an advantage in this regard since  they have access to basically anything and everything, as opposed to the difficulties faced by hinterland communities, the President said his government is committed to exploring all avenues aimed at trying to level the playing field.

One such effort that he alluded to is the exposure and opportunities, not only provided but guaranteed, to hinterland students to further their studies and even going overseas to study in specialist fields.

According to the President, there are more than 400 students from the hinterland who are currently on scholarship in Georgetown, be it at the Government Technical Institute, the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE), the University of Guyana, the Guyana School of Agriculture, or at the range of other academic institutions.

He said there are more than 80 students from the hinterland (in all regions) who are currently abroad studying.

“These kids never had that opportunity, but now we are ensuring that every batch of students that goes on scholarship, that some of them come from the hinterland communities,” the President said.

VISION
At the community meeting, President Jagdeo also briefly  highlighted some of the developments taking place across Guyana, while simultaneously alluding to the government’s vision to move Guyana forward.

“We have a vision of where we want to go but it doesn’t happen overnight,” the President told the residents of Matthew’s Ridge.

While alluding to the rapid and widespread development taking place across Guyana, the President also acknowledged that there are still many ‘pockets of areas’ within Guyana where the pace of development has not been moving as quickly as it should or as fast as other areas, such as those along the coast.

“There are a lot of constraints in trying to move this country forward and while the developments have not been even, the country is making tremendous progress today,” he added.

“The GDP has moved from about US$300M  to about US$2.4B, inflation and interest rates have gone down,  the private sector is booming, there is a massive housing boom…we are working on building a hydro in a matter of months, we are exploring for oil and gas offshore of Guyana, we are opening-up the Rupununi savannahs to plantation type activities, tourism is growing, we are aggressively pushing ICT (Information Communication Technology)…these are some of the things that are happening in our country and we don’t want any part of our country to be left out,” the Guyanese leader said.

“We have a long road to go but we have dug ourselves out of the hole that bad policy and bad governance put us in,” Mr. Jagdeo said to loud applause from the residents.

Among those accompanying the President to Region One on Tuesday were PPP General Secretary Mr. Donald Ramotar, Minister of Housing and Water Mr. Irfaan Ali and Minister of Health Dr. Leslie Ramsammy.