Ministry sees less illegal mining, improvements for small miners

Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat earlier this week highlighted ongoing efforts to tackle illegal mining activities, particularly cases involving small miners encroaching on other stakeholders’ properties.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Bharrat also revealed measures to ensure small miners can access land independently. This, he said, has reduced illegal mining activities.

Minister Bharrat explained that small miners would actually go onto other stakeholders’ lands and conduct mining activities, which the ministry terms raiding. In some instances, the property owners grant permission to these miners, but without proper agreements.

“….and when that small miner finds gold, then those persons are evicted or they are put off the land,” Bharrat said.

To address these issues, Bharrat noted the establishment of lottery systems in Region One, Bartica, and Mahdia over the past three to four years.

“Over the last three years, I can say safely over 1000 small Guyanese miners now have access so we have seen a significant reduction in raiding or small miners going on other properties,” the minister said.

However, another challenge has been managing the overwhelming number of claims, with over 18,000 claims requiring verification.

“Previously, once a miner staked a claim, put up a board with their claim name and date, and submitted an application to the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), they could start mining immediately—even before verification. This created a significant backlog of unverified claims,” Minister Bharrat explained.

Over the years, the ministry has worked to reduce this backlog, now down to approximately 2,000 unverified claims.

“We’ve introduced a system where, when a miner stakes a claim and submits an application, we commit to verifying it within a month or six weeks. Once verified and there are no encumbrances, the claimed license is issued, allowing mining to begin.”

These changes aim to reduce raiding and create better arrangements in mining regions.