Gold: does Guyana have a stake

(Kaieteur News) – Omai’s Elaine Ellingham should be the happiest CEO around.  She and her company are operating in a country, where one could easily get the impression that Ms. Ellingham is the president and Omai is the government.  Exciting news is reported by gold companies operating in Guyana’s abundant goldfields, and Ellingham is the only one sharing the developments.  Where is the Government of Guyana not reporting to its citizens, in the manner that Omai CEO is informing her investors and stakeholders?  Does Guyana have a government that is engaged in what is happening in its rich mining sector?

One of the last pieces of information coming out of the PPPC Government came through Senior Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh.  Guyana is attracting the interest of world-class gold companies, and they will be arriving here to start exploring for gold.  Five Canadian companies are now racing ahead with exploring and assessing, then sharing what the estimates look like.  It has been mostly Ellingham doing the talking, and on each occasion that she does, the details that are shared confirms how much Guyana is a modern-day mineral resource bonanza waiting to be tapped.

When the estimates of the Omai Gold Project, Aris Mining, and G Mining Ventures in mineral rich Region Seven, plus those of other companies are totaled, over 14 million ounces of gold is the result.  Only the heads of foreign investor groups striking different mother lodes are heard from, and they have every reason to be pleased, due to the millions of ounces involved, the potential payouts to their funders.  Why is someone from the government, Ashni Singh, or Minister Vickram Bharat, not sharing with citizens what all these exciting items of news about estimated millions of ounces of gold, and their significance for this country?

A contract is signed, government spokespeople get into the act using the same standard employed by politicians the world over: investment interest and dollars generated, jobs, and some associated infrastructure improvements.  It has been a blanket of silence from government since those lines were delivered.  Millions of ounces of gold indicated from Guyana’s mineral belt, and the PPPC Government is as silent as a mouse, as though afraid that any movement, the smallest sound, would give it away.  Why is there any need for silence, if there is nothing to be hidden, if Guyana is benefiting as it should from all these great gold discoveries?

The world hears from Omai’s CEO about how Guyana is one of the giants in the gold sector, how Guyana is one of the most mining friendly investment locations in the world, and how strong institutional support makes life easier for gold companies.  We are happy to hear all this, but what is the payback for Guyana, how exciting that is, amidst all this good news coming from Omai and the other gold companies, with their finds of gold indicated at millions of ounces?  Mining friendly locations and strong institutional support both have costs attached, so what is Guyana receiving for its generous allowances with regulations, and nonintrusive oversight, that are so joyful to foreign gold companies, what Omai’s Ellingham celebrates?  Using Omai’s excitement about Guyana and its gold, we cannot help but to make the connection to ExxonMobil and recalling the language that it uses to describe Guyana’s oil assets, and how much of a jewel in ExxonMobil’s crown they represent.  There are few Guyanese who need a lecture on how disadvantaged this country is with ExxonMobil’s oil contract that ties its hands and drains its riches, while rewarding Guyana with next to nothing royalties and profits.  It could be the case of oil and its cheap returns for Guyana, being repeated with gold, which is why the PPPC Government is so rigidly silent.

Meanwhile, Ellingham is selling Guyana to the investor world as a prime gold destination. One that should be given the highest priority for their investment millions.  What she is selling closely resembles a risk-free gold operating environment.  When a CEO could speak in that manner, it would be surprising that gold deals signed are not most favorable to her company’s profit prospects.  When the government shelters behind a wall of silence, there’s one loser, Guyana.