CONTRARY to reports in the media regarding the availability of stone, Minister of Public Works, Robeson Benn on Friday maintained that there is indeed a shortage of stone in Guyana, and such a contention is also being promoted by some contractors. “Everyone knows that for the past two years there has been a stone shortage, and that it continues to exist,” he said at a press conference at the ministry. The Minister was referring to persons and agencies that are engaged in projects requiring stone products.

About two months ago, the Ministry undertook a flyover of the quarries, and two days ago, another such exercise was done. On both occasions, it was observed that there was hardly more than a day’s supply of aggregate. 
Minister Benn explained that the indicators of the shortage are that there is importation of stone and the increase in the price of the item by some suppliers by almost 30 per cent within the past two years. The latter indicates that the materials are being rationed by way of price increases beyond the price of inputs.
He emphasised that if the situation is not addressed, the price for stone will continue to increase unabated and the supply deficit will also rise, and as a result important capital projects like the expansion of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), rehabilitation of the West Coast, East Coast and Sheriff/Mandela roadways and routine maintenance works will be stymied.
“We are thinking that the price of stone in Guyana should be no more than $6,500- $7,000 at this moment, even with the increased price of some inputs… We would like to see the quarry operations operating at full capacity,” he said.
The Minister explained that the Ministry is aware that the reason for the shortage exists because there is a lot of building construction going on at both the private and public levels especially since stone is critical for road, sea and river defence and housing projects.  
“We would have preferred that the discussion in the media would have suggested that from a particular operator that he is now suggesting, since he has the largest quarry operations in Guyana, that he will now bring the shortage to an end…that is what we would have been interested in hearing, but the facts are here and I want to state too that this matter has been under discussion at the Cabinet level in the past two years,” he said.
In relation to what the President has said on the issue, Minister Benn said that his Ministry would not misinform the Head of State. Further, the Ministry was asked by the President to conduct a study on the supply on stone in Guyana, and this was done in May 2013 by the Works Services Group. The Minister pointed out that the study was informed by data from the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), and other agencies and visits to the various quarries.
“From this study, it indicated that the supply was 40 percent below demand…the supply is only 60 percent of demand,” he noted.
In this regard, the government has been advised by the Ministry of Public works to give consideration to the continued and increased importation of stone for several reasons. These include the fact that for the past few years the quarries have not been producing adequate amounts of stone to satisfy the domestic market needs. Contractors and concrete aggregate producers have gone the extra mile to import stone from overseas to mitigate the shortfall.
The Ministry has found that there is very little activity at quarries located on the Essequibo and Mazaruni Rivers and few stockpiles of aggregates on site. The quality of crusher run being supplied by a particular quarry operator has repeatedly failed sieve analysis tests conducted by the Ministry of Public Works lab.
Minister Benn explained that with regards to the latter reason, the tests have identified the scalping out of the mid size range of aggregate leaving an ‘off-spec’ product with too much ‘fines’ making the product un-usable for its intended purpose.
According to the information obtained from the GGMC, for 2012 the total declaration of quarry products from the five licenced quarry operators amounted to 483,859 tonnes. Of the declared amount, 277,103 tonnes (57 percent) originated from BK Quarries Inc. This indicates that BK’s average monthly production for 2012 was approximately 23,000 tonnes.
Meanwhile, the average monthly demand for aggregates in 2012 was about 97,000 tonnes for housing and public projects such as roads and sea and river defence. (GINA)