The global demand for mineral-based products is growing at a rapid rate, especially with the high rate of industrialisation in China and India along with several other countries in South-East Asia. It therefore means that the market for these products will continue to grow at a high rate. According to Global Industry Analysis Inc. (GIA), the world market for Mining Chemicals is projected to surpass US$25.7 billion by the year 2017. Growth in the future will be driven largely by revival of a large number of feasibility studies that were stalled by mining companies during the heat of the recession and waxing demand for mineral resources from developing countries to fuel their rapidly growing economies.
The GIA further points out that the mining industry has and will continue to remain an indispensable industry in the 21st century with economic prosperity and competitiveness critically hinged on  the level of mining activity. Mineral commodities are essential to modern industries and their omnipresent use in almost every walk of life is undeniable. All mined resources constitute vital raw materials for the production of a wide range of consumer/industrial goods. Steel, iron, aluminum, manganese, lime, for instance, are used in all the broadest of broadest applications, such as, aerospace, defence, electronics, consumer durables, engineered goods, construction, agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, utilities and communication among numerous others.
This means that countries such as Guyana, which have mineral resources in abundance,  could position themselves to capitalise on this huge demand for mineral commodities. And indeed the Government of Guyana has been working feverishly to do this and so far it has been very successful as it has been able to attract hundreds of millions of US dollars in investments in bauxite, oil exploration, gold and manganese mining which are creating and will create thousands of jobs in the near future.
Only recently, the government concluded a mineral agreement with the Canadian company,First Bauxite Corporation (FBC), for the establishment of a bauxite mine at Bonasika, a farming community, on the East Bank of Essequibo.
At the signing ceremony held at Office of the President yesterday, the Head of State pointed out that apart from the agreement with FBC, government had granted one additional block of land each to bauxite companies RUSAL and BOSAI, enabling them to extend their operations significantly, a development which will further accelerate the impact of the mining sector on the economic development of Guyana and Guyanese within the next three to seven years.
President Jagdeo disclosed that the block given to RUSAL will facilitate the expansion of its production from the current rate of 1.2 million tonnes of bauxite per year to five million tonnes per year by 2015 and ten million tonnes per year by 2018.
President Jagdeo noted  that when Presidential Candidate, Donald Ramotar mentioned 1,000 new jobs in Linden at a recent rally there, some people said that it was a pipe dream.
“This is not even futuristic. It is happening. At least 1,000 people will be employed in the Linden-Kwakwani corridor and many more in the construction phase; 1,000 stable jobs and many more in New Amsterdam. This is about a US$300M investment in bauxite that we can foresee, apart from and in addition to this investment by FBC, in the near future.”
But the mining of bauxite at Bonasika will not only enhance the national economy but will also help to improve and develop the community, of which the only means of livelihood has been farming.
Acording to GIA production challenges and bottlenecks faced by the mining industry interestingly provide a business case for mining chemicals. For instance, growing demand for minerals, increased mining activities and the ensuing depletion of high-grade ore deposits, have necessitated mining companies to tap into lower quality ores. Continuous mining results in reducing the concentration of an ore, thus requiring additional energy and cost for mining and refining since deposits are harder to process, extract, refine, and process. This thereby requires the use of high-quality, technologically advanced mining chemicals capable of maximising recovery of mined minerals.
So Guyana with its abundant natural resources is now poised to take full advantage of that huge global market for minerals through greater investments and expansion of the mining sector.