THE Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment said it regrets that the protest actions at Linden, which are in their fourth day(last Saturday), are taking their toll on the gold and bauxite mining activities and on the mine workers, their support services and their families. While respecting the right of Lindeners to engage in peaceful protest, the Ministry refers to the releases made by the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA), and the Bosai Mineral Company. The GGDMA had advised its membership that due to the denial of access to vehicles requiring to transit Linden en route to Mining Districts 7, 8, 9 and 10, they may have to find alternative routes.
In the case of Bosai, the Company has advised the ministry that it has had to shut down its operations for 4 days. Consequently, it has suffered huge financial losses in production and the shutdown has affected approximately 600 employees.
“The impact will be even more pronounced if workers cannot receive their pay next week,” the ministry stated.
It said this comes at a time when the company is reviewing future investment plans which is in the vicinity of US$200M and can create another 1000 jobs.
Bosai further announced that stored fuel, including the one tanker load received on Sunday, can only maintain the electricity supply at Linden and allied communities for about 2 days. Load shedding may have to commence from today of this week if the Company cannot be guaranteed a daily fuel supply.
The ministry is also alerting Lindeners that they should be aware of the consequences to the mining and socio-economic sectors and the well-being of the mine workers and their families, if the mining community and their supplies are denied access through Linden and if Bosai is faced with a continuing shut down of its operations.
The ministry said it will continue to engage all stakeholders in the mining sector on the impact as well as exploring alternatives.