FOLLOWING an unsuccessful bid to locate market for recently produced bauxite, the Bosai Minerals Group Guyana (BMGG), the bauxite company operating out of Linden, has sent home a number of casuals and contracted workers, in an effort to tighten its budget.

In addition to not securing markets, the two kilns in the company are presently not working, and the storage is currently full. Relating the situation to the Guyana Chronicle was a senior official within the company, who said that the situation presently is that there have been no sales and the company made a decision to send home casual workers.

He said that once the bauxite is sold, the workers are expected to be called back immediately.
When asked whether it was the rapidly spreading corona virus that caused the lack of sales, the official said it can either be that or the increase in competition on the local and world markets. In Guyana alone, there have been more bauxite companies in operation, which creates more competition locally for BOSAI.

The latest of these is First Bauxite in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara).
Relative to the economic effects the corona virus has been having on the world market, Reuters reported two days ago that global stocks continue to sink as the virus spreads. The report said that the disruption to business worsened, stoking fears of a prolonged economic slowdown. Stock markets that are being affected include Europe, America, Germany, China and other countries in Asia. “The MSCI All-Country World Index, which tracks shares across 47 countries, was down to 0.7 per cent,” the report said.

Employees of Bosai are anxious about the situation, and are hoping that the company secures sales so that normalcy can be restored. In the last two months, the company has experienced some tumultuous times, among them sanctions by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) twice, following an order for its wash plant operation to be halted.

The company official also related that BOSAI is still to meet all of the requirements meted out by the EPA, and that despite the current political situation, the company continues to work to honour those environmental stipulations.

The company also had to pay the National Industrial Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL) over US$3M in dividends, which had accumulated over the years after a series of extensive negotiations.

Workers are hoping that they do not share the same fate as the hundreds of RUSAL workers that were recently laid off, as that company, too, had said that it was economic challenges which prompted it to act the way it did. BOSAI employs over 600 workers, many of whom hail from Linden.