Region Eight mining transgressions
GGMC seeking legal clearance not to return confiscated mining equipment
Some miners to be denied certain licences in the future…Woolford
Stabroek News, Friday, November 30th 2007
Acting Commissioner William Woolford
If the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) succeeds in making a
case against the miners charged with illegally mining and destroying
roads between Mahdia and North Fork earlier this year, the penalty for
the offence could include the confiscation of mining equipment already
impounded by the Commission, according to Acting Commissioner William
Woolford.
Speaking with Stabroek Business by telephone earlier this week Woolford
said that the miners against whom the Commission is seeking to make a
case are due to appear in court in January next year and that the
Commission will, as part of its case, be seeking the court's permission
not to return the seized equipment if they are found guilty of the
offence. He said that the seizure of the equipment which the GGMC was
empowered to effect under the law had been carried out with the
involvement of the police.
Woolford had said some time ago that the Commission had, up to that
time identified twelve miners thought to have been associated with the
illegal mining activity. When Stabroek Business spoke with him earlier
this week, however, he said that he was not immediately in a position
to say how many offenders had been charged and would appear before the
courts.
The move by the GGMC to seek the court's clearance not to return the
equipment is part of the package of "stiff penalties" against the
miners which Woolford had said the Commission would seek when he spoke
with Stabroek Business in August.
And as part of the process of reining in illegal mining practices
Woolford told Stabroek Business this week that the GGMC had compiled a
list of mining operations that will no longer be issued with certain
types of mining licences.
Reports which surfaced in the media earlier this year indicated that
the miners, some of whom were not licensed to operate in the area, had
been conducting extensive mining activities on the roadway and, in the
process, had done extensive damage to the roadway and to pipes already
laid to provide water to residents.
The illegal mining activity is believed to have been going on in the
area for some time and reports of damage to the roadway first surfaced
in July this year following a visit to the area by Works Minister
Robeson Benn and a team of mining officials.
Apart from the damage to the roadway the mining activity is also
reported to have polluted residents' water supplies and Minister Benn
had ordered that the miners vacate the area within 48 hours. Benn had
said that the illegal mining activity had resulted in damage to around
three miles of roadway in Region eight, between Mahdia and Salbora.
The GGMC has given an undertaking that it would effect repairs to the
damaged roads and pipelines.
In the wake of the incident the police had been called in to effect the
seizure of equipment from several miners and Woolford had said that the
GGMC would be seeking stiff legal penalties for the transgression.
During his telephone interview with Stabroek Business Woolford restated
the GGMC's position that no permission had been given to the miners to
mine the road area.
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