THE Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) will be beefing up its staff in the hinterland to try to garner more revenue from the gold and diamond mining sector this year.

Commissioner Rickford Vieira has said that an increase in at-site facilities and personnel on the ground will aim at ensuring that miners in remote areas declare all the gold they produce.
The at-site facilities will also make it easier for miners to interact with the agency since these would relieve many of them of the inconvenience and expense of having to travel to the coastland to conduct their business legitimately.
He acknowledged that because of the vastness of the areas of interest this was likely to be an uphill task but the GGMC was combining this expansion with appeals and moral suasion to miners to comply with their obligations to their country.
He said that the GGMC was also working closely with the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) towards this end.
Vieira disclosed too that miners who make declarations above a certain amount will be rewarded with duty free allowances for certain desirable classes of vehicles for their operations.
The GGMC recently opened a sub-office at Lethem in Region 9 (Upper Essequibo/Upper Takatu) as part of its planned at-sites expansion for 2015.

(Clifford Stanley)