– have until Friday to show cause why licences should not be revoked

OWNERS of the nine business and residential buildings that were boarded when the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) Mines Division moved in on a number of illegal businesses on the Puruni Landing have up to Friday to show cause why their business/residential permissions should not be revoked.
Last Friday, a high-level team from GGMC’s Mines Division closed down a number of businesses on the Puruni Landing in the Middle Mazaruni Mining District #3 after it was found that they were in violation of the Mining Act.

The doors to the buildings were boarded and letters served to the proprietors. In the letters issued, GGMC pointed out that business/residential permissions were granted to applicants in keeping with Regulation 70(1) of the Mining Act. However, the administrative conditions clearly state that “the permittee SHALL NOT sub-let nor sub-divide interest in the permission nor any part thereof nor TRANSFER the same without the consent in writing of the Commissioner of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission.”
Additionally, licensees are not allowed to harbour any woman or man of immoral character on the land occupied. Based on the fact that those two regulations were breached, the GGMC informed the defaulters that they have seven days to show cause why their business and/ or residential permission should not be revoked. Failure to respond appropriately would result in the commission taking “necessary actions”.

On Monday, Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes was briefed in detail on the exercise by a team of officials from GGMC. On the sideline of that meeting, she told Guyana Chronicle that the Mining Act will be upheld and all must toe the line.
Minister Broomes explained that the GGMC, after being lobbied by miners many years ago, had taken a decision to issue yearly business and residential licences to persons who would facilitate the sale of fuel, spare parts, food and clothing to miners who may be unable to journey to regularise communities and towns like Itaballi and Bartica for supplies.
Residential permission is also offered to persons who provide temporary accommodation, but Minister Broomes made it clear that licences are offered with conditions attached.

CANNOT SUBLET
“One of the conditions is that the licence that would be issued to you, you cannot sublet it. Reason being is that the commission must be in a position to validate or verify information on licence that they are giving out,” she explained.
It was noted that persons have developed a culture of exploiting the situation, occupying plots of land on the Puruni Landing without permission and in some other cases where permission was granted, licensees were found to have been renting buildings erected to more than one person at a time. Defaulters were repeatedly warned to desist but to no avail.
As such, she made it clear that GGMC was acting within the realm of its responsibility to bring order to the mining community. When such breaches are allowed to continue, the minister said they create opportunities for persons to engage in money laundering, human trafficking and other illegal activities.
It was on this note that the minister disclosed that two days before GGMC’s operation at Puruni Landing, mines officers visited each building on the landing and found that there were 17 women from Venezuela, Brazil and The Dominican Republic who had no work permit.
“Seventeen of them, none had work permits, not one of them out of the 17,” Minister Broomes lamented.
On the day of the exercise they were nowhere to be found; however, the building that housed them was among those boarded. Their passport numbers were collected in the days prior and the information will be handed over to the Ministry of Social Protection and the Ministry of Citizenship for appropriate actions to be taken.
Responding to an allegation that GGMC had targeted Brazilians in Friday’s operation, Minister Broomes said the allegation is baseless. She noted that while the Commission has not taken extreme positions in cases where illegal operations are found–as done in countries like Brazil–it will not tolerate any violation of the Mining Act and supporting regulations.

“Anybody come here got to toe the line. It doesn’t matter which country you are from, you have to toe the line,” she emphasised.