Surge in underground mining anticipated

FOLLOWING two large gold finds in Guyana’s interior, Minister of Natural Resources, Mr. Vickram Bharrat said that staff will receive expert training in anticipation of an increase in underground mining.
He noted that the ability to effectively monitor the industry to ensure adherence to health and safety protocols is of paramount importance to the ministry.
Within weeks of each other, two Australian companies recorded massive finds. Troy Resources announced a major gold find at its Smarts underground project in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni). Then on Monday, Alicanto Minerals Limited announced a maiden find of 500,000 ounces at 1.8 grammes per tonne (g/t) at its Arakaka Gold Project in Region One (Barima Waini).

Minister Bharrat, in commending the finds, noted that as the industry continues to expand, his ministry will be assessing the regulatory needs, and will expand its own capacity, correspondingly.

He informed that particular focus will need to be placed on increasing the ministry’s capacity to monitor underground mining, as expertise in that area is considerably lacking.
“We see that there is a lot of deposits underground, so health and safety becomes of key importance. The ministry wants to ensure that we have people who are trained to monitor underground mining, because, soon, more companies will start going in that direction, given that there are large deposits,” the minister noted during an interview with this publication.

Minister Bharrat stressed on the need for training, given Guyana’s inexperience in this area.
“It is something that is new to Guyana; it’s not that we have a lot of experts sitting and waiting. So, getting people trained to regulate underground mining safety is paramount. But we have been monitoring all the different tiers of mining, not only small- scale, but large-scale mining as well,” he added.
Asked if there is currently sufficient capacity to monitor the sector, he pointed out that whatever exists would never be enough.

“There could never be enough; the more officers, the better for me, but, of course, we have to look at budgetary constraints,” he said, adding: “But as mining operations increase, obviously we will have to look at it, to see if the numbers we have are adequate enough, or if we are spreading ourselves too thin.”

ATTENTION REQUIRED
Further, the minister emphasised that mining is currently driving the Guyanese economy, so necessary attention must be paid to the industry.
“It’s benefiting about 200,000 Guyanese either directly or indirectly. Since I came into government, I am amazed at the amount of people who are getting back into mining now,” Minister Bharrat related.
He noted that the recent budgetary measures which were put in place to make the industry easier, particularly on local small-scale miners, is driving an even greater interest among the miners.

“We have been trying to incentivise the sector, for example by removing VAT on mining equipment and vehicles; duty-free ATVs and so on, so the result is a lot more people being involved. I see about 20-30 people every week in need of land; that want to go back into mining; that want permits. And the gold price has contributed to that too,” the Minister noted.
“We are trying to incentivise even more by having the regulatory agencies trying to make it easier to do business with them; not relaxing regulations, but in trying to process documents faster. You would notice we are moving towards that,” he added.

But with more investment and more activity comes the need for more monitoring and regulating. This is done primarily through the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC). The Minister assured the Guyana Chronicle that the on-the-ground monitoring is continuously ongoing.
“We have ‘Mines Officers’ stationed throughout the mining district; permanently stationed in those mining districts. So we have officers on the ground, monitoring day-to-day activities,” he informed.

The minister admitted that there are sometimes slippages.
“I am not making excuses, but sometimes some do slip through. Then there’s the human factor; we’re dealing with human beings here, and the lust and lure in the gold mining area. It’s the reality on the ground; we depend on our officers to maintain the integrity, and to act professionally at all times,” the minister said.

ALICANTO
A statement from Alicanto has noted that the estimate includes a maiden resource at the Purple Heart area of 338,000oz at 2.4g/t gold. The resource runs from surface to a maximum vertical depth of 150m, and mineralisation remains open along strike, and at depth.
Stretching more than 300km square, the Arakaka Gold Project (AGP) is one of two gold projects in Guyana being explored by Alicanto; the other is the Ianna Gold Project, located some 20 km southeast from ongoing exploration operations at the Arakaka.

“Arakaka hosts multiple regional scale structures, late basin conglomerates, extensive alteration systems, widespread, high-density veining indicative of gold systems capable of yielding multimillion-ounce bulk tonnage gold resources, as well as high-grade, 2m-thick quartz-gold reefs,” Alicanto’s website boasts.
At AGP, the company is currently focused on four well defined target areas with near to medium-term resource potential.

“The Arakaka Gold Project is a regional scale project, and is host to a number of target areas warranting further exploration activity for shallow, bulk tonnage, open-pit gold targets,” the company says.
The AGP permits are 100 per cent held either directly by Alicanto’s wholly-owned Guyanese subsidiary, or subject to various underlying option agreements with Guyanese operators.