The rapid development of Guyana has not missed the country’s mining sector, with a number of international gold companies seeking to enter the local market.
This is according to the Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat who spoke with reporters on the sidelines of the National Toshoas Council (NTC) held at the Arthur Chung Conference Center (ACCC).
“We’re expecting at least two or three other large companies investing in Guyana, as it is now ETK partnering with Grand Colombia, they’ve already started some amount of work in the Toroparu Gold Mines, that’s in Region Seven, the Cuyuni area. A number of equipment is already here in the country so, we know for sure that they have already started work in developing that mine and go in to production at some point in the future,” the Minister stated.
“We know that Grand Colombia and ETK are taking steps towards moving to production, that might probably be the first company among the lots that are coming in to go towards production,” he added.
Another largescale company, Barrick Gold, is expected to start operations in Guyana soon, he noted.
“As you’re aware, I was in the mining conference in Canada lately, I had conversation with Omai Gold Mine that is doing continuing exploration, to date they have already made the discovery of close to 1.5, 1.6 million ounces.”
“I also had meetings with Barrick Gold, Barrick Gold is one of the largest gold mining companies in the world and they will start exploration activities very soon on properties they would have acquired next door to Troy Resources right in the Cuyuni area, again the mining district, so their exploration activities should start soon,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the Minister pointed out that Guyana’s gold production will also increase when the two largescale companies currently operating here begin their underground mining.
“As you’re aware, we have two large gold companies Zijin and Troy Resources, however Troy Resources has been under maintenance, we’re working with them to ensure that they go back into production as soon as possible. Both companies, however, are venturing into underground mining for the very first time in Guyana, so that will see a significant increase in production once we reach to the production stage, we will see a significant increase in production in gold,” he said.
