THE Government of Guyana is working to stabilise the price of sand and stone, General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Dr.Bharrat Jagdeo has said.
During a news conference last Thursday, Dr. Jagdeo disclosed that the prices for stone and sand had skyrocket during a shortage. To cushion the effects of this, the government implemented several measures.
“Stone prices skyrocketed; there was a shortage. It was about $15,000 a tonne of crusher run and stone and the prices skyrocketed and there was a shortage. We licensed about nine new quarries…this is a success story; six new quarries are either operating or started operating. The prices now have come down back to about $10,000 per tonne for stone.” Dr. Jagdeo said.
Meanwhile, to increase the production of sand, the government opened several sandpits to support the country’s infrastructural sector.
“When the prices skyrocketed, we said we open up some government sandpits, we’re going to do more of that, so that the prices were just jumping all the time. We are trying to get the prices to come down.”
Currently, according to Dr. Jagdeo, the price for a tonne of sand is about $4,000 in Berbice.
“If you’re buying 30 cubic …of sand in Berbice, if you are buying that now, you pay $120,000 because their capacity to move large volumes is limited… So, we are now looking at licensing some more people with sandpits and getting bigger barges, incentivising people to do bigger barges to land at different points on the coast in Berbice.”
Figures provided by the Natural Resources Minister in 2021, showed the production for sand surpassed 1.65 million tonnes, as compared to the 688,051 tonnes produced in 2020.
As for stone, 2021 saw a production of 853,099 tonnes, as compared to the 737,750 tonnes produced during the same period in the previous year. It has been noted that even with improved production, there were still complaints of shortages across the country.
Eleven quarry licences were issued to new applicants, covering 30,737 acres with each having a productive capacity of 150,000-200,000 metric tonnes per year.
Shortly after the People’s Progressive Party/Civic assumed office in 2020, it brought an end to what was deemed as a standstill in the quarry industry, owing to the non-granting of licences throughout the tenure of the David Granger-led government.
In December 2020, the PPP/C government granted approvals for Black Jaguar Investment Group, owned by Essequibo businessman Tamesh Jagmohan, to operate a block in the Mazaruni River.
At the time of the announcement, the quarry was positioned to be the largest of its kind in Guyana and the Caribbean, with plans to produce some 20,000 metric tonnes every week.
The company had said that unlike other quarries, it will be engaging international partners to establish multiple sites of extraction and production.
