Guyana will soon begin bauxite mining in the Orealla, Corentyne River, Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne) area.
This is according to Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat.
The announcement was made on Monday when he and Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha visited the two Amerindian communities as part of a government outreach programme.
The bauxite deposits are located some 10 miles away from Orealla. Minister Bharrat revealed that there are large deposits of bauxite in close proximity to the community at Tarakuli.
“And there is an interest to develop the Tarakuli bauxite deposit. I met a few investors who are willing to come and develop the Tarakuli bauxite deposit. It is one of the largest bauxite deposits remaining in our country that is untouched,” Minister Bharrat said.
Studies have already been done and tests carried out on the bauxite found at Tarakuli, which proves that it is a very high quality.
“The interest is there from the investors to come and to do mining in this area. The plan too by investors is to set up what we call an aluminum plant. The aluminum plant will add value to our ore. For too long we have been exporting raw materials. We have not been exporting value-added products,” the Minister added.
“You would know that when you export value added products, you earn maybe ten times more than when you export the logs or the raw material. When you export one log and you make US$60 off of that log, if you convert that log into value-added products you make close to US$6,000 from that very log. That is why adding value to our products is a priority of our government. To ensure that we no longer export bauxite the ore but that we export aluminum. So that we don’t export logs as we used to but that we export furniture.”
Meanwhile captain of the Orealla/Siparuta Village Council, Carl Peneux said the bauxite deposits are likely to last for decades and therefore, such an initiative will bring tremendous benefit to the community.
Orealla is an Amerindian community situated 50 miles of the Corentyne River and its sister village, Siparuta is six miles further.
