-furious that laws, regulations are enforced selectively

By Ariana Gordon
MINES officers of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) were on Saturday reminded of their need to be impartial in the execution of their duties, as miners in the North Fork Backdam, Konawaruk and Mowasi Landing areas have complained bitterly about bias displayed by mines officers.

After meeting on Saturday with miners, who complained about what appears to be favouritism displayed by mines officers in Mining District 2, Minister Simona Broomes of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment expressed dissatisfaction with the reports, and has issued a stern warning to mines officers regarding their need to enforce the laws and regulations applicable to small, medium and large scale miners.
The miners complained that their small-scale mining operations are often halted by mines officers for various reasons, but they allege that medium and large scale miners are allowed to breach the very regulations that they are targeted for.
In a bid to investigate the claims of the small-scale miners, who have requested Government’s assistance in providing land for them to work, Minister Broomes, accompanied by a team of mines officers, ranks of the Police Force and the media, visited Region 8.

During that visit, the Minister observed a mining company in breach of several safety regulations, but are yet to be issued a Cease Work Order (CWO).

Asked to explain why that mining company was not issued a CWO for the glaring cases of unsafe practices in the mines, the Mines Supervisor said: “These operations were monitored all the time.”

It was then that Minister Broomes inquired more about the monitoring process. She said if that company was being monitored and from afar she can observe several breaches, then something was not right.
“So they were monitored…and (have) no buffer and everything just eat away like this?” Minister Broomes questioned.

She received this response from the supervisor: “They are expected to maintain the 66-foot buffer area from the Konawaruk River.”

The Minister refused to accept what she was being told. “You just pointed out to me that where we were walking use to be [good] and so they eat all of that. So if they were being monitored, how is this possible?

“The regulations are for everybody…without fear or favour. I don’t want to know some people doing this and some doing that.” – Minister Broomes

“(In the case of) a small miner, you don’t leave it up to him, you does go and stop him; but these people, you have anything on record that they received any cease-work orders?”

The Minister said the company was operating in a “special manner”, and enquired why they were given privileges that small miners are denied.

“Why are they special? I want to know why some miners are being treated differently. Why are they being treated differently, as against these (small) miners?” she asked.

“Why are they special? I want to know why some miners are being treated differently. Why are they being treated differently as against these (small) miners?” – Minister Broomes

It was observed that the mining company has lots of overburden material (waste or spoilt) above the area where the mining activity is ongoing. The minister said this is dangerous for those working there. That material, she said, should be used by the company to restore the areas that have been mined out.

Minister Broomes noted that companies like the one she observed have enough room for mining reclamation. “Why so much overburden? There are big piles of stuff? When would they come back

in terms of compliance and reclamation? They never come back!

“I just see these big pools. Why are they allowed to go forward with all these things?” the minister asked, while noting that large-scale mining companies should set an example to small miners.

It was then that the mines supervisor said that mines officers will “inform them of their legal responsibilities.”
“I will alert them and put them on notice, and let them know we have seen this…,”the officer said.

His statements did not sit well with Minister Broomes, who demanded to know why it was that small miners are never warned but large scale miners are being warned.

“So why do we have to write them and tell them what we saw, and (with) the rest of people we taking action? You got a four-inch dredge on the road, six-inch dredge on the road, and they are being stopped; they have to move. So why we got to write them to tell them where they are breaching the law?” she demanded to know.

The mines officer replied that small-scale miners’ operations were halted because of raiding, but the minister made it clear that all illegal operations must be treated the same way.

“Breakage in the law, illegal mining, be it by raiding, safety hazards, lack of compliance, it is the same thing…there is nothing different,” Minister Broomes said.

She explained that the previous People’s Progressive Party (PPP) administration condoned “special behaviour”, but her ministry will not.

“I am saying that we don’t want it. The regulations are for everybody…without fear or favour. I don’t want to know some people doing this and some doing that,” she asserted.

Meanwhile, the small-scale miners pleaded with Minister Broomes to work out a deal with the large scale miners so that they would be in a position to work the unused portions of land belonging to large scale miners.

The miners said they will be petitioning the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment with the hope that they would be able to make head way. As it is, the miners operating out of North Fork Backdam mine on properties that do not belong to them, and this often poses a problem.

Garfield Wint said miners are in search of shallow alluvial land, where they can mine. Those lands, the miner said, are available and are unused by the owners.

“We begging…we really desperate, Minister. Most of these dredges is 4-inch dredges…we ain’t got excavator; there is a situation with landlordism.

“Years ago, when I was a pork knocker, you could have gone on a man land and beg he for a position and pay he 10 per cent. Now if you ain’t got $1M, nobody gives you position,” Wint explained.

Wint said that he, like the other miners of North Fork, are aware that the lands belong to other persons and that Government cannot take it from them and issue it to small miners.

“…but I feel that you could try to reason out things, and if you could beg these same people to allow we to work on these shallow part of the land that they have no uses for….

“We are asking you if you can come together with them and let them release certain amount of these shallow alluvial land that they can’t work, 3, 4-inch land…we deh in the corner here punishing and we ain’t getting nowhere to work,” he pleaded.

The frustrated miner said miners have tried raiding lands but the illegal activity costs them more.
“We ain’t want raid no more…we begging you to get these people together and ask them if they could give we a part of the same shallow land. We are willing to pay them a percentage,” he added. His fellow miners concurred with his statement.

MOWASI LANDING
Like the miners of North Fork Backdam, the miners of Mowasi Landing area are also pleading with the Government to provide lands for them to work.

“We are hoping that this Government will bring the stakeholders at a meeting or forum where they can grant small miners permission to work. They are only subletting to their friends. If you check from bottom to top, you’d find that is only 10 dredge working and is only friends…no small miners,” Lindon Fordyce told Minister Broomes.

He said some aspects of the lands belonging to medium scale miners in the Konawaruk area are unused, and as such he pleaded with the Minister to lobby for them to have access to some of the lands, so as to sustain the industry.

“More people should get access to these areas to sustain the mining industry, or it would come to a close very soon. Let us know now if the small man don’t have no say in it, if it is just for large scale miners; then let us know to make decisions for the future.”

He noted that the people who mine in the Mowasi Landing area have been doing so for decades, but still own no lands.

“The prime concern is the land for small-scale miners to work, like myself,” Fordyce said, much to the agreement of fellow miners.

Minister Broomes committed to having some amount of lands being distributed to small scale miners, but noted that in areas where state lands are not available, miners may be forced to take lands in different mining districts — a task that would prove costly.

“We are reviewing all the different state lands in different districts, so that in the next couple of weeks we are going to give lands to miners,” Minister Broomes promised.