Guyana’s modest gold output growing

Increased gold purchases by the state-run gold authority here have led to official predictions of a record-breaking production year in this key sector, Guyana’s fifth ranked foreign exchange earner.

Figures released by the Guyana gold board show that miners have sold 13,667 oz. of gold on the official market during the first quarter of 1992. This is 3,000 oz. more than the amount for the corresponding period last year. According to Gold Board chairman Kenneth Bancroft, production could have been even higher.

“A lot of the fellows are tied up in Georgetown waiting for rains to swell rivers and creeks to work them,” he said.

The board, the sole official buying agency here, expects production to soar during the April-June rainy season with a record output heralding a revival of the industry.

Official projections put this year’s target at 80,000 oz., a figure which has surprisingly not been matched since the early 1900s when less efficient equipment was available.

Government has blamed smuggling overseas and black market trading for the low output in recent years. Miners say the price has simply been too low. Bancroft is predicting that the official target of 80,000 will be surpassed by at least 2,000 oz. given the rate of production and declaration this year already.

“I think it should be 100,000. We are well into it,” the Gold Board head said. The industry has been picking up in the last two years because of a new, IMF-inspired policy of offering prices equal to those on the street. Miners welcomed the new system when it began in spring 1990 and, by the end of the year, production had reached 39,000 oz., almost doubling the previous year’s output.

Last year 60,504 oz. of gold were sold to the board.

The industry is beginning to boom just as foreign companies are preparing to open what is being billed as South America’s largest and most productive gold mine.

Omai, in Essequibo County, western Guyana, is expected to produce 225,000 oz. annually for at least 20 years, when production begins next year. Once this happens, gold is expected to overtake sugar, bauxite, rice and timber as the most important foreign exchange earner for the country.

The mine is owned by Cambior (TSE) and Golden Star Resources, (TSE)_with the state retaining a 5% interest.

— Inter Press Service