SOME PARLIAMENTARIANS APPEAR not readable. That seems so because Rabin Parmessar and Michael Marengo, both from the NDP, expressed surprise in the mining area ‘Peling Bergi’ that no small-scale industry is. They seemed surprised at the scale of gold mining in the area. This while it has been happening domestically for many years.
The Emsags project, which started in 2019 and aims to introduce environmentally friendly mining methods in the small-scale and artisanal gold sector, has written meters of paper on this. They agree that small-scale mining – the artisanal kind – no longer exists in Suriname. Various conferences and meetings have also been held to discuss the problems related to the massive destruction in the areas and devise solutions. Did the parliamentarians not realize what was going on at the time?
Will they finally demand from Natural Resources Minister David Abiamofo that a digital map be made available again with all up-to-date information on concessions, as the president said
More and more machines are being used in the gold fields and more and more mercury is being used. Besides, the more machines, the more pollution of course. Suriname issues mining rights on the basis of the environmental decree, whereby mining right holders are entitled to design the area as an industrial area. This involves felling trees, removing layers of grass and setting up a gold mining operation. That is exactly the case at the concession of the state mining company Grassalco, which is an hour away from ‘Peling Bergi’.
What the government does not do is control and monitor what is happening in the field. Although there is a Geological Mining Survey department, many concessionaires have never seen a mine inspector. So the government does not hold concessionaires to the conditions in the decree and does not provide transparency.
For example, a list of mining rights holders who are active in the area around Pikin Saron, which also includes ‘Peling Bergi, but without a map, was recently published. This means that the Parmessar and Marengo delegation could not even speak to the boss of the operation, because if there is no map, no one knows which concession is where and who should be contacted for it.
Since they don’t seem to read, it’s fine that the parliamentarians have gone into the field so they can see what’s happening. But this example above all shows that policy is important. What are the parliamentarians going to do now with these images on their minds? Will they finally demand from Natural Resources Minister David Abiamofo that a digital map be made available again with all the up-to-date information on concessions, as the president said, or will it remain with this one visit that has a high show value?
It would be great if parliamentarians took the bull by the horns and, after this field visit, really delved into what is happening at policy level in the mining sector. Where does it fall short and who is responsible for that? But also what can be done to reduce the use of mercury and regulate that of ‘Jin Chan’. Because anyone can visit a goldfield, but only parliamentarians are equipped with the authority to realize matters in the highest council of state.
