A DAY after BK Quarries Inc. filed a lawsuit against the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over the recent granting of four quarry licences to Nazar ‘Shell’ Mohamed’s company, Hadi’s World Inc., the company has maintained it followed “all the requisite legal channels” in obtaining the licences.

In the lawsuit, BK Quarries Inc., through its attorney, Sian Dhurjon, is contending that despite several objections raised, the GGMC and the EPA took the decision to fully permit and issue the quarrying licences to Mohamed– who had only applied for the licences in December 2020 — for some 16,502 acres of land along the Mazaruni River,

The lawsuit seeks to argue that the decision to award Mohamed the licences was made although BK Quarries Inc. had applied for a quarry licence since August 16, 2018, for a portion of the same area.

Further BK Quarries Inc. contends that they were issued a prospecting licence for the said portion of land since 2014, a licence which is still in force, and that the company has been carrying out exploration and developmental works on the prospecting licence since 2014.

The prospecting licence is for an area located on the left bank of the Mazaruni River in the vicinity of Itaballi and covers 9,364 acres. The purpose of the licence is for the conduct of exploration and developmental activities; the quarrying licences are for the extraction of rock and production of aggregate.

During an interview with Prime News on Friday evening, which was shared with the media, Mohamed explained that he applied for a quarry licence in 2020, subsequent to identifying the area along the Mazaruni River.

He noted that he was informed that BK Quarries Inc. indeed possessed a prospective licence, however, nothing was done on the land, and it was referred to the GGMC Closed Area Committee.

“GGMC did an assessment on BK Quarry and only fifteen per cent of stone is being mined, he is in the quarry business for 30 years, so he has stone on his quarry for another 300 years,” Mohamed said.

“We made an application to the Closed Area Committee and our application was granted; then we proceeded to make our application to GGMC for the land. Our application was considered, it went through all the requisite legal channels, the EPA granted permission on the June 14 and the licence were issued,” Mohamed said during the Prime News interview.

Mohamed explained that there was a public hearing on June 10, 2021, when representatives of BK Quarries Inc. made an objection to the EPA and requested that an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) be conducted.

“This was an environmental issue; the board, after the public hearing, told the EPA that they can go ahead and issue the licence, so the licence was issued, environmental licence and GGMC prepared the licence for the quarries,” Mohamed asserted, noting that there is “nothing cynical” about the licences.

According to the court documents, on December 30, 2019, Commissioner of GGMC, Newell Dennison, wrote to Brian Tiwari, the owner of BK Quarries Inc., stating that the application for the quarry at Itaballi was being processed. He pointed out that the area applied for was “a considerable expanse of land” and that the GGMC would require that the company reduce the acreage being sought.

On January 9, 2020, BK Inc. wrote to GGMC confirming a meeting on January 14, 2020, with the commission’s Technical Sub-committee to advise on the way forward concerning the quarrying licence application being processed.

The result is that the GGMC, through its Technical Sub-Committee, decided that the size of the area being used to operate under the Quarry Licence was to be reduced by 50 per cent, from9,364 acres to 4,680 acres.

On July 2, 2020, GGMC wrote to BK Quarries requesting a map of the reduced area. GGMC said that this information was necessary for the finalisation of the quarrying licence. The updated map and the other requirements were submitted on August 6, 2020.

There was no further communication from GGMC. This prompted a letter from BK Quarries to Commissioner Dennison on December 9, 2020. On January 20, 2021, Dennison wrote to BK Quarries informing the company that “all quarry licences extant and otherwise are to be reviewed by the Commission’s Board of Directors.” That letter continued, “Your further co-operation and patience is requested while this action by the Board is being expedited.”

However, on February 6, 2021, as published in the Official Gazette, BK Quarries Inc. observed that GGMC had published its Notice of Intention to grant four quarry licences to Hadi’s World Inc. of Lot 29 Lombard Street, Georgetown over the areas which were covered by the 2014 PL B-70 and the 2018 quarrying licence application.

A few days after the GGMC gazetted the Notice of Intention to grant, the EPA posted a notice in the daily newspapers that they had waived the requirement for the conduct on an EIA. The notice was to allow 30 days for any objections to the issuance of the EPA authorisation to Hadi’s World Inc.

BK Quarries Inc. objected to the EPA, notifying them that the area being applied for by Hadi’s World Inc. is currently held by the company under Prospecting Licence B-70 and was in the process of being converted to a quarry licence since 2018.

The company further objected on environmental grounds against the waiver of the EIA based on the expected negative environmental impacts associated with stone quarrying. The objections raised by BK Quarries Inc. regarding the ownership of the area and the need for detailed environmental assessment were all dismissed by the EPA as ‘inconsequential’ on June 15, 2021.

According to documents, BK Quarries Inc. contends that it is chiefly engaged in the business of quarrying and the selling of the stone and aggregate produced therefrom. The applicant posited that despite this, Hadi’s World Inc. which has no known experience or expertise regarding the running of quarrying operations, was granted the quarry licences to the lands.

The lawsuit alleges that the board of the GGMC was biased in favour of Hadi’s World Inc’s applications because of a close relationship to one of the company’s director.

However, Mohamed explained that his move to enter the quarrying operations was prompted subsequent to him noticing there is a significant need for aggregate in Guyana.

He listed a plethora of reasons why he is of the opinion that aggregate is in great demand, including flooding and rising sea levels, noting that stones for sea defence is imperative. He also highlighted that the country is undergoing “massive development” and stone would be needed to facilitate that as well.

BK Inc. is asking the court to grant an Order of Certiorari to quash the decisions of the GGMC, dated June 15, 2021, to grant four quarry licences to Hadi’s World Inc. because those decisions are in breach of their statutory duty, in breach of natural justice, arbitrary, ultra vires, unreasonable, irrational, and unfair, abuse of power, whimsical, capricious, against their own policy and without any legal foundation or authority.

BK Inc. is also seeking an injunction to prevent Hadi’s World from occupying or taking any steps to develop the 16,500 acres of land recently awarded by the GGMC under the four quarrying licences.

Additionally, BK Inc. is seeking another Order of Certiorari to quash the decisions of the EPA made on March 21, 2021 and April 16, 2021 which were upheld by the Environmental Assessment Board (E.A.B.) on June 14, 2021, to award four environmental authorisations to Hadi’s World Inc.

Lastly, the applicant is seeking an Order of Mandamus to compel the GGMC to take all steps necessary to see to the favourable processing of BK’s application dated August 16, 2018, for a quarry licence over the area of 9,364 acres designated by the GGMC as LM40: B-1000/000/18, upon the applicant being issued the requisite environmental authorisation by the EPA to conduct quarrying operations on the said area.

Mohamed explained that if a decision is granted contrary to his favour it would “somewhat” affect his company.

“We have already invested in equipment and to set up a quarry is a lot of money; we have already invested in a lot of equipment,” he said.