Friday, August 26, 2011

Internationally recognised Geologist lauds government’s efforts to regulate local mining industry

The government has come in for high praise for moving to better regulate the local mining industry and creating the “suitable environment” to attract foreign investors. Lawrence Roulston, Geologist and editor of the newsletter ‘Resource Opportunities’ says Guyana is a country only beginning to develop its gold resources, where a supportive government and rising global demand may lead to a growth in the industry.

Lawrence Roulston

“The exploration and development process is still at an early stage and investor awareness is just beginning to pick up about the potential of the country,” said Roulston.
“For a long time it (Guyana) had a political situation that wasn’t favourable for mining and that situation has now turned around totally so that the government is actually very supportive of international mining companies,” Roulston said.
The internationally recognized Geologist pointed to the efforts by government in recent years to increase the revenue from gold mining and attract foreign investment, as well as better regulate an unruly industry.
The last underground mine in Guyana was Canadian-owned Cambior’s Omai mine, which was closed in 2005 after the collapse of a toxic tailings dam, but once again international companies have been exploring the country for viable operations.
The Geologist pointed to the environmental challenges that exist especially by small “surface top” miners.
However, he lauded the government’s efforts at creating the suitable environment to attract large scale gold mining investors to develop underground extraction operations which stand to better serve both the local human population and the environment where they live.
“The government is trying hard to stop that environmental mess of the small miners and instead have the international companies come in and conduct real mining operations where they go down hundreds of meters but create a much smaller footprint,” said Roulston.
“The idea of establishing mining operations that bring stability and long-term employment opportunities would be a huge benefit to the country and that’s part of the government’s push to create the stable long-term employment that would lead to healthcare and education and some of the other benefits to the remote areas,” he said.
The growing global demand is attracting a number of foreign gold exploration companies to Guyana.
Guyana Frontier Mining began acquiring interests in the country in 2007, and has begun reporting drilling results for their projects.
GMV Minerals Inc. is another company which picked up a very large property position from the largest surface miner in Guyana and is now in its early stage but has a very extensive property position with numerous surface mining projects under way.

1 comment:

  1. The govt strive to keep the mining industry booming has seen it recognition by a this Geologist.The govt has kept the mining environment suitable for foreign investors.The raise must indeed be given for the work that the govt is putting out.

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