THIS YEAR, despite the more cautious response by the global markets to the price shocks, the prospects for large-scale mining for gold in Guyana are still very real, Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh said during his presentation of the 2014 Budget on Monday.He noted that, in 2013, the gold mining sector played an important role in the domestic economy, and delivered record-breaking production. The industry remained resilient to price shocks, with growth only minimally affected, as evidenced from the retention of jobs and the attendant multipliers in economic activity.

With respect to the prospects for this year, he said, the Guyana Goldfields project at Aurora is advancing aggressively for a late 2014 start-up, which is earlier than originally projected, and Troy Resources (Pharsalus) in the Kaburi area is on stream for a late 2014 start-up, if not earlier.

The ETK/Sandspring project at Toraparu is also poised for further developmental works geared to production start-up by 2015.

“Collectively, these injections of foreign direct investment are anticipated to increase production significantly, along with industrial and commercial linkages, which together bode well for Guyana’s economy on the whole,” Dr Singh said.

He said that what was also encouraging in the sector is that the adoption of innovative technology is unfolding to blunt the issues associated with mercury abatement, improve efficiencies in recovery to offset cost of production, and reduce threats to the environment.

The moderate 2014 target for gold is 484,562 ounces, a growth of 0.7 percent, reflecting the volatility of world market prices and their consequent impact on investment and production.