Notes on Guyana

— Guyana, situated on the northeastern shoulder of South America and that continent’s only English-speaking country, is in the throes of a general election. Voting day is Oct. 5. Elections in Guyana, a former British colony which gained its independence in 1966, take place every five years, and were scheduled for early 1992. In part, the delay has allowed officials to complete the voters list. Election news has been dominating Georgetown newspaper coverage.

— The Omai mine’s human resources officer is the affable Norman McLean, who is the retired chief of Guyana’s national defence forces. Known as the “General,” McLean is a cricket fanatic who has toured the world (including Canada) as the manager of a West Indies cricket team.

— Just as mining operations have helped to open up Canada’s North, so is Omai playing a similar role in Guyana’s rain forest interior. Construction of a wharf and roads are only part of the picture. The on-site medical facilities not only serve Omai workers, they are available to people living in the area, along or near the Essequibo River.

— The population of Guyana is about 750,000; Georgetown, along the Atlantic shoreline, has about 200,000 residents. The country’s mineral resources include gold, diamonds, semi-precious stones, bauxite and high-grade silica sand. Main exports are rice, sugar, bauxite, gold, timber and shrimp. More than three-quarters of the country’s land mass is covered with tropical hardwood forests. Guyana has a network of rivers as yet untapped for hydro-electric development.