Gold sector recorded 0.5% growth in 2024; Finance Minister blames smuggling and under declaration
Mon Jan 20 2025
The gold mining sector continues to record poor performances with slow signs of a recovery. In 2024, the sector recorded a growth in production of just 0.5%, according to figures from the National Budget.
The Government intends to continue to provide support to small and medium scale miners. Since 2020, the value added tax has been removed from mining equipment, and the industry has enjoyed other benefits.
However, while acknowledging the interventions of his Government, Minister responsible for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh admitted that despite the many interventions, there are still many problems facing the gold mining sector including smuggling and under-declaration.
“Mr. Speaker, with the support provided by our Government, the small and medium scale gold mining subsector has been showing strong signs of recovery, although problems persist. These include incidents of under-declaration and smuggling. Heightened surveillance and intelligence-based policing have made significant inroads into arresting these problems, and the sector is showing some improvement as a result,” the Finance Minister said during his budget presentation.
The Finance Minister announced several measures to contain the problems and regulate the sector, which includes mobile purchasing by the Guyana Gold Board, increased compliance and enforcement activities; and greater use of ICT applications to monitor mining operations.
“Moreover, a regime for incentivizing declarations to the GGB has been implemented, and Government’s endorsement of advanced chemical leaching technologies should help our small-scale miners extract gold from low-grade deposits more economically. Together, these factors are expected to boost production in 2025,” the Finance Minister noted.
At the large-scale end of the industry, the Finance Minister noted that the sole current operator at Aurora continues to meet and exceed projections, employing directly and indirectly over 1,500 Guyanese nationals, compared to 862 in 2020. He also stated that work is also ongoing on the further build out of their underground mine, while extraction has already commenced.
He said another large-scale development at Oko West announced its Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) in September 2024, projecting a recovery of 4.5 million ounces of gold over a twelve and a half years period.
“With an anticipated average annual output of 353,000 ounces and an initial capital investment of US$936 million, this project underscores the vast potential of Guyana’s untapped mineral wealth. Meanwhile, exploration interest and advances in other locations with large scale potential are progressing. Once these large-scale developments come on stream, the sector will cement its place as a major contributor to economic activity and employment well into the medium and long term,” the Finance Minister noted.
The gold mining sector has been one of the key sectors in the economy, but over the years there have been growing concern about smuggling in the industry and the non-declaration of gold by many miners.
Source: https://newssourcegy.com/