COMMISSIONER of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), Newell Dennison on Wednesday said that upward trends have been seen over the last few years in the bauxite and aggregate industries.

Dennison made these remarks during the Ministry of Natural Resources mid-year press conference, where updates were provided on the extractive industry.

He said that as a regulatory agency, one aspect of how they are judged relates to the commodity performances.

As such, he added, “We have observed however, undeniable upward trends in areas of bauxite despite the fluctuations for chemical grade and we have received indications of plans to expand metal grade production.”

While this is so, he said that the sector has been confronted with unprecedented climate-related issues like floods and droughts which he said caused the diversion of capital and human resources to other sectors which are having resurgences.

Further to this, Dennison said that due to the boom in the construction sector here, there has been a surge in the production of sand and aggregates.

“For quarry, materials such as aggregates and sand production has multiplied consistently over the last three years plus in response to the infrastructure and housing needs,” the commissioner said.
Meanwhile, giving an update on the commission’s work, he told the gathering that GGMC continues to deploy its resources strategically to foster relations in research of improved technologies to adapt and further implement safer mining practices across the country.

He went on to add that the commission continues in its efforts to bring improvements to the organisations and the mining sector.

With this, they have also embraced customer quality assurance to ensure that doing business with GGMC is easier and friendlier.

This has led to reduced cycle times for tender application processes even as the commission has decentralised major processes from its headquarters to areas like Bartica and Mahdia for things like the renewals of permissions to operate and dredge registration among other things.