-President Ali

ALTHOUGH a notable gold producer for decades, Guyana is still considered a gold mine, literally, with massive amounts of gold still waiting to be extracted.

As a matter of fact, in his commemorative message for Guyana’s 52nd Republic Anniversary, President Dr. Irfaan Ali disclosed that the potential value of the nation’s gold reserves stands at an impressive US$35 billion.

The Head of State emphasised that Guyana is a rich land of some of the world’s most enviable resources, and that these ought to be utilised in a manner that brings prosperity to all Guyanese.

“We, as a people, must understand what our country has to offer, and where it will be positioned in the future,” President Ali said.

He also reiterated the intention of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government to pursue national transformational development in a manner that is sustainable and resilient to climate change, which continues to take its toll on the world.

In a more local context, climate change, in the past year alone, has affected several of Guyana’s critical sectors, with unprecedented floods having devastated households, farmlands, and operations in the mining and extractive industries.

So much so that some mining operations were completely submerged while some others were washed away. As a result, the gold mining subsector contracted by an estimated 14.8 per cent in 2021, according to Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, during his presentation of the government’s mammoth $552.9 billion national budget for 2022.

But even with the decline, gold mining continues to be an important contributor to Guyana’s rapidly growing economy.

“The gold mining sub-sector represented 8.8 per cent of our GDP (Gross Domestic Product) – the third largest non-oil sector of our economy – and more than 60 per cent of our total non-oil export earnings,” minister Singh posited.

He said that, going forward, the vision for gold mining lies with the continued support for exploration to uncover new discoveries that can potentially transition to mining projects.

“At a strategic level, more focus on deriving efficiency from the mineral recovery phase of the small and medium scale mines can also help to promote sustainability,” Dr. Singh added.

More notably, the Finance Minister posited that significant growth can be expected from the gold sub-sector in 2022, with declaration envisaged to continue to be dominated by small and medium scale producers operating 1,054 small- scale mines and 25 medium-scale mines.

Meanwhile, it was highlighted that new allocations of mineral properties last year saw 202 medium-scale mining blocks being awarded via lottery and 65 via an auction.

“Large scale operators are expected to come fully on stream in the medium term,” Minister Singh informed.

He noted, specifically, that at Karouni, while production will be paused this year, the investor will forge ahead with exploration and development of the underground prospect.

“Beyond this year, investment in the Toroparu area will finally result in long anticipated development of a full-fledged gold mine, since an international mid-tier gold company has confirmed their interest in that project.”

The growth of Guyana’s gold mining industry will be further supplemented by the return of Omai Gold Mines, which had wrapped up operations in 2015, after 24 years of service in Guyana.
In its prime, Omai was said to be the largest gold-mining operations in the South American region, having produced over 3.7 million ounces of gold between 1993 and 2005.

However, mining eventually ceased at a time when the average gold price was less than US$400 per ounce, leaving significant drilled mineral resources untapped and prime exploration targets untested.

But, with an initial investment of US$12 million, the company has returned to Guyana to pick up where it left off, and, from all indications, this was a smart decision, because, already, initial explorations have detected 1.6 million ounces of gold at the Wenot Pit, located in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni).

But the company has not stopped there; it said that the initial Wenot mineral resource justify the potential to expand the known deposits and, together with Fennell’s historical mineral resource, demonstrate the potential to re-build Omai into a multimillion-ounce project.

In January, Omai announced that it had struck even more gold; this time, at its Broccoli Hill pit in Region Seven. A press release from the company’s Toronto, Canada office had indicated that first round of drilling at Broccoli Hill, totalling 690 metres, intersected gold mineralisation.

Commenting on the find, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Elaine Ellingham, said that the new mineral resource is quite an achievement for the company’s first year of return to Guyana.

“We are also pleased to report that our initial trenching and drilling on Broccoli Hill that commenced late in 2021 has already resulted in several significant gold values,” Ellingham noted.

Broccoli Hill is said to be an area located only 300 metres north of the Wenot pit and less than 200 metres east of the Fennell pit. Those two pits combined, produced over 3.7 million ounces of gold.

“After field work and trenching in October and November, we completed six initial wide-spaced holes on Broccoli Hill before the holiday break in December. We intersected gold in four of the six holes and consider this very successful for first-pass drilling on a large, relatively untouched target area,” the company said in its statement.

With the knowledge gained, Omai, also started additional trenching, mapping and sampling. It said in January that “Over the next couple months, we will advance some of the property’s prime exploration targets, including Broccoli Hill, that hold potential for new near-surface mineralisation amenable to open pit mining.”

Broccoli Hill has been worked by artisanal miners for over 100 years. Broad gold anomalies were identified by previous auger and soil surveys and the airborne geophysical signatures are similar to those of the Fennell deposit.

The abundance of past placer gold workings in the lowlands flanking the hill, together with the numerous scattered artisanal workings on the hill itself, indicate more gold in surrounding areas.

Additionally, the Canadian-based gold mining company had said that with its return, in addition to engaging and potentially supporting small miners, it also had plans to employ hundreds of people. In its earlier days, the company had in excess of 1,000 persons in its employ.

Nonetheless, Guyana currently has over 25 mining companies active in Guyana, and with the country poised for exponential growth, Omai has made it clear that it intends to take full advantage of what it described as the country’s “economic renaissance.”

Currently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has rated Guyana as the fastest growing economy in the world, projecting that the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$3.5 billion is expected to triple within the next five years; that too, with significant contributions from the local non-oil sectors, especially agriculture and mining.