Guyana Manganese Incorporated (GMI) has committed to employing a predominately local workforce as it prepares to begin construction in July.
Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman and Chinese Ambassador to Guyana, Cui Jianchun, visited the Matthew’s Ridge, Region One mine site on Monday to conduct an assessment of the progress that has been made since GMI purchased the area from Reunion Manganese Inc(RMI) of Canada.
GMI, a Bosai Mineral Group company, is currently on track to develop the mines, plant, and factories to begin extracting the mineral by early 2019. Steven Ma, Assistant General Manager of Bosai’s Overseas Department briefed Minister Trotman and team.
Steven noted that construction is set to begin in July and some 550 locals from the region and across Guyana will be employed during this phase as well as the production phase. Currently, GMI is employing 20 locals in the engineering design and survey phase and is investing US$100M in the first phase development.
During the construction phase, the mine processing plant, washing plant, warehouses, and factory will be established. The company is currently procuring equipment.
It was pointed out that the company is facing logistical challenges in terms of moving the ore from the plant to sale. While road and port facilities were identified, GMI is currently mapping and surveying these to design the best solution going forward.
GMI purchased four prospecting licences that cover an area of 45,729 acres, exploration results, mineral agreement, certain properties and infrastructure from RMI of Canada in November 2016.
The total manganese resource in Matthew’s Ridge is some 26M tonnes. To produce the manganese concentrate, the company will have to mine some 2M tonnes per year which will see the life of the operation lasting some 12-13 years, if there are no other resources to be added.
Minister Trotman noted that the Government is committed to doing work on the road but will do so in collaboration with the company, particularly as it relates to maintenance. He also committed to discussing the sharing of facilities with bauxite company Rusal, as GMI resolves the logistical challenge.
The Minister stressed the importance of mining in Region One to GMI.
“We’d like to see a resurgence in this region and so Government is very keen on getting it started,” he said.
Minister Trotman also charged the company to honour its corporate social responsibility and singled out the community hospital for attention in this regard.
Meanwhile, Region One Member of Parliament, Allen Richard, said the region, in particular, is looking forward to the resurgence of manganese mining.
“This is a timely visit when not just Matthew’s Ridge or Matakai sub-region is looking forward for the establishment of the manganese company which brings relief and lot of employment,” he said.
Chinese Ambassador Jianchun said he is proud of the example Bosai has set in Linden and charged GMI to have a similar integrated approach in Region One.
“Through this project try to push more to let the people benefit. I am concerned that we can create more jobs for the local community,” Ambassador Jianchun charged. (Extracted and modified from Department of Public Information)
