OVER three dozen Buxtonians, including miners, on Monday evening agreed to form a mining syndicate to assist in the revitalisation and empowerment of villagers, particularly those in the mining sector.

Giving the feature address and the proposal at the Friendship Primary School was Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes who called on Buxtonians to educate themselves on opportunities, and invest the time and energy to become economically empowered.

The minister said that the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) has a library that can be accessed by persons from the syndicate, to educate themselves regarding opportunities and lands that are available for small scale miners.

Minister Broomes who has lead responsibility on the allocation of lands for syndicates encouraged the Buxtonians to mobilise into syndicates, to increase their benefits on mining claims.

She told the gathering that the opportunity provides a chance for improving their lives.

“That money that the syndicate gets, you can take that same money to empower yourself and empower each other, you can even access loans within the syndicate,” she said.

She pointed out that the syndicates are expected to follow safe mining practices.

“The syndicates I believe are well placed to receive government’s support in improved mining techniques,” Minister Broomes noted.

Minister Broomes told the miners that they will be afforded the chance to choose their location from the approved Closed Area Committee (CAC) map of available mining lands in the area.

Chairman of the Society for African Guyanese Empowerment—Buxton (SAGE-Buxton) David Hinds, said the meeting is part of a larger initiative by SAGE, a recently-formed organisation, to engage government and other stakeholders along with Buxtonians in tackling the structural problems in the village and coming up with programmes aimed at empowering villagers, economically, culturally and socially.

Hinds said that he supports giving people a small portion of the oil revenue in the form of direct money in their pockets, since the data shows that cash transfers have had positive impacts on nutrition and school attendance, which in turn has helped to reduce poverty.

The provision of syndicates was an initiative introduced by the government to address the need for lands for small miners while dealing with the challenge of available lands.
Each syndicate is mandated to pay two per cent of their earnings to the National Syndicate, which in turn is used for the benefit of all.

Minister Broomes has been meeting with small miners across the country to push the creation of syndicates.