Guyanese gold and diamond miners urged to diversify

The GGDMA has predicted that gold and diamond production would surpass its present target in response to increasing demand. (Photo: caribbeantracker.com)

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Friday October 21, 2011 - President Bharrat Jagdeo has advised miners to broaden their operations beyond gold and diamonds in spite of the current record world prices for gold.

Addressing the bi-monthly meeting of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association’s (GGDMA), President Jagdeo said the country has other underexplored minerals of equally high value.

“We have sought at various times to have a policy where the nation could have a better understanding of that mineral wealth and how we market it and get investment into the other minerals so as to create opportunities and wealth for other people here in Guyana,” President Jagdeo explained to those in attendance.

He was referring to discussions between Guyana and Iran on the proposed mapping of mineral reserves that, he believes, would facilitate a much more planned development of the country’s mining sector.

According to the Guyanese leader, a team from the Geological Survey of Iran compiled an initial report on the process and presented the findings after a visit in March last year.

President Jagdeo told miners that possibilities exist for collaboration between the government and large scale miners to develop this process.

“That mineral… map goes into sectors beyond gold and diamond because some of those sectors shall become lucrative in the long run,” President Jagdeo said.

The GGDMA has predicted that gold and diamond production would surpass its present target in response to increasing demand.

President Jagdeo assured that the group that the tax regime for small miners will remain unchanged in spite of the price hikes for the two minerals. Click here to receive free news bulletins via email from Caribbean360. (View sample)