Gov’t to issue cease orders for operations with low gold declarations as new multi-agency crackdown takes shape

The Government is preparing to take its strongest enforcement action yet against gold smuggling and illegal mining, with President Dr Irfaan Ali announcing on Saturday that mining operations producing low or no declarations will soon receive cease orders, and operators who damage riverbanks will be suspended and stripped of their mining blocks.

In invited comments to the News Room, President Ali said the new measures form part of a specialised, integrated operations unit that will be launched with international support to directly confront illegal mining, gold smuggling, and environmental violations.

“These practices are unacceptable,” the President stressed. “They harm communities, destroy the environment and rob the country of legitimate revenue.”

The enhanced crackdown will focus simultaneously on enforcement and systemic reform, creating a more transparent, accountable and sustainable mining environment.

According to the President, the Government’s position is clear: any operator with suspiciously low declarations, no declarations, or who engages in environmentally destructive practices will be stopped immediately. Mining blocks owned by those operators will be returned to the State, and their operations will not be allowed to continue.

Despite the tougher enforcement stance, the President reaffirmed that the Government remains committed to the thousands of small and medium-scale miners who operate responsibly.

Future support to these miners—whether technical, financial or logistical—will be directly tied to the declarations they make to the Guyana Gold Board, ensuring that the system rewards honesty and transparency.

The coming crackdown builds on a broader, multi-agency approach already in motion over the past year. Authorities have been tightening loopholes in the gold-export system, strengthening penalties for smuggling, and improving intelligence-gathering methods.

A government-established task force, comprising the Attorney-General, the Minister of Finance, the GRA Commissioner-General, the FIU, the Central Bank Governor and the Guyana Gold Board, has been reviewing the system and closing gaps that historically enabled smuggling rings to thrive.

Recent intelligence-led operations have already disrupted several illegal networks, with multiple foreign nationals arrested and charged in major stings. According to officials, these efforts have also helped identify new smuggling tactics and weaknesses in declaration patterns, prompting the President’s latest directive.