THE Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) on Wednesday last closed down 14 illegal  gold-mining operations in the Omai area, Essequibo, in an ongoing campaign to curb a  problem of widespread  “raiding” of gold- bearing, unoccupied State lands. Major General (Rtd) Joe Singh, who is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the GGMC,  disclosed Thursday that the campaign will continue, even as efforts are made to regularise  occupation of these lands.
“There has to be some semblance of respect for law and order. People just cannot do as they  please,” he said, addressing a meeting of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association  (GGDMA).
He urged members of the GGDMA to self-regulate, to self-manage and to bring their influence  to bear on operators within the industry to ensure that such aberrations are removed and  that best practices prevail.
He also urged a closer collaboration between the GGMC and the GGDMA in this regard, stating  that good, law-abiding miners get a bad name, and the industry on the whole gets a bad name  when some miners indulge in illegal activities and get away with it.
Executive Director of the GGDMA, Mr. Edward Shields, had complained bitterly of illegal  raiding of gold-bearing State lands which was rampant in some of the mining districts.
He said the activity was not claim jumping of lands owned by other miners, but illegal  occupation and mining of State lands formerly mined, but closed after the legal occupiers  had defaulted on their payments.
Some of the raiders had even taken machines onto these unoccupied lands.
“These people are not declaring the gold they find; the State gets no revenue from them,  the country loses,” he said.
He had urged that  these persons be stopped and their equipment seized and confiscated to  send a clear message to others that they will lose more than they gain from illegal mining on State lands.