–integration of women, Guyanese abroad could add to project’s successful impact on local economy, officials say

THE new US$1.5 billion Oko West Project in Region Seven will broaden opportunities for Guyanese, Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn has said.
This multi-faceted development, which is expected to come on stream by 2027, is set to transform the landscape of Guyana’s mining sector, offering hundreds of job opportunities, especially for women.

The Oko West Project is a new gold discovery in northwest Guyana. It is located south of the historical “Oko” gold district, some 95 kilometres west of Georgetown.
The Oko West Project comprises a prospecting licence with an area of approximately 44 square kilometres, 100 per cent held by G Mining Ventures’ Guyanese subsidiary.
At an education forum on the Oko West Project hosted by GMIN Ventures Guyana on Wednesday at Pegasus Corporate Suites, Benn highlighted that the country is currently experiencing its most pivotal phase of development, with new opportunities emerging from the oil and gas sector; this will be supplemented by the Oko West Project.

“This new development at Oko West will broaden the opportunities for people,” he emphasised.
Benn also highlighted the government’s commitment to revitalising and developing the natural resource sector, specifically mining. He pointed out that there was a time when the sector was in decline.
“We [the PPP/C] have kept our promise in relation to re-energising and developing the natural resource sector in relation to mining. There was a time when it was being shut down. There was a time when the bauxite operations were practically dead…Even the small mining…were shut down. We have come back and we are keeping our promises to the people,” he said.

With the mining sector back on the rise, especially now with the Oko West Project, Minister of Labour Joseph Hamilton related it is important for inclusivity within this ambitious initiative, particularly the need to employ more women in sectors traditionally dominated by men, such as engineering, construction, and energy.
“We have to determine what role women will play in national development. The last census indicated that the majority gender was women at 51 per cent. There is a census now and my prediction is that, that number will go up. So, we cannot talk about development if we are keeping more than half of the population out of the discussion of specific training in technical areas…,” Hamilton said.

Benn had emphasised too that skilled professionals in the diaspora could return home and contribute to the country’s rapidly developing economy.
He emphasised the government’s push for Guyanese talent abroad to lend their expertise to national projects such as Oko West.
Benn reflected on the example of Omai, a gold-mining operation in Guyana, which once employed nearly 94 per cent of its workforce from among Guyanese nationals.

Many of these workers, having gained significant technical expertise, are now working abroad in key roles across the globe.
Benn specifically mentioned countries such as neighbouring Suriname, French Guiana, Papua New Guinea, and even countries in Africa, where former Omai employees are contributing to important, technically challenging projects.
“I wish that we could get many of them back. We want them back to help us have development—to teach and to coach and to bring up the new generation of young Guyanese who have to be multi-skilled, resourceful, willing to go out into the countryside, into the wild, into the forests to develop their country for themselves,” Minister Benn said.

Bjorn Juene, General Manager of G Mining Ventures, highlighted that the Oko West Project will generate at least 1,500 jobs, with a strong emphasis on local employment and capacity building. Juene stressed that the initiative will contribute to Guyana’s broader development goals.
As part of this commitment, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed with the Board of Industrial Training (BIT) to provide local workers with training opportunities at the BIT centre in Bartica, Region Seven.
Further, through a scholarship agreement with the University of Guyana (UG), several geology students have received educational support and will continue to benefit from this partnership.