Guyana still to publicize all natural resources contracts

As part of Guyana’s requirements as an Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) member, it is mandated to publicize all natural resources contracts.
In fact, under the EITI’s contractual requirements, it is emphatically stated that “Implementing countries are encouraged to publicly disclose any contracts and licences that provide the terms attached to the exploitation of oil, gas and minerals.”

It further stated that it is a requirement that the EITI report documents the government’s policy on disclosure of contracts and licences that govern the exploration and exploitation of oil, gas and minerals. This should include relevant legal provisions, actual disclosure practices and any reforms that are planned or underway. Where applicable, the EITI Report should provide an overview of the contracts and licences that are publicly available, and include a reference or link to the location where these are published.
What is concerning, however, is that Guyana has only made public those contracts of the petroleum sector, while contracts for the bauxite, timber, gold and diamond sectors remain secret. Visits to the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) website even proved futile, since the regulator has uploaded no contracts for the other extractive industries.

While the petroleum sector has managed to steal the spotlight of Guyana’s natural resources sector, transparency advocates posit that attention should not be taken away from those other traditional sectors. Foreign mining companies like Australian-owned Troy Resources, Aurora Gold Mines, now controlled by ZIJIN Mining Group, as well as Russian-controlled Rusal continue to deplete Guyana’s resources at an exponential rate, while the country reaps very little benefits—as reported extensively by Kaieteur News.
In October, Troy Resources had announced that it had hit the jackpot again with a four-ounce-to-the-tonne gold hit in its latest diamond drill hole at the Smarts Underground deposit at its operating, million-ounce, Karouni gold project in Guyana. In just one of the multiple hits in its latest 449m deep drill hole, the company returned 11m at 131.93 g/t gold from 223m.

According to Australian publication, The West Australian, investors had flooded into the stock on the news in the busiest trading day on the ASX for Troy Resources this year, driving the share price more than 80 percent higher on opening trades.
Troy Resources’ Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Ken Nilsson, had confirmed that this was the best hole that Troy had ever drilled and was up there with the best he had ever seen. With this, he said, “Throughout my career, which has spanned multiple mining operations across multiple continents, I have only once previously been involved in the drilling of a hole with results anywhere near as spectacular as those from SDD189”.

Importantly, Guyanese are not aware of what benefits they will reap from this remarkable find and the fact that the contract signed between Troy Resources and Guyana is locked away, contributes to the state of uncertainty and concern.