250 locals to be employed at US$50m bauxite project at Bonasika

More than 200 Guyanese are expected to be employed when bauxite mining commences at Bonasika, a village located 10 miles from Parika in the Essequibo River.

First Bauxite Corporation, a company headquartered in the United States, has begun construction of the Bonasika Bauxite Project under its subsidiary Guyana Industrial Minerals Inc.

A simple ceremony was held at the Marriott Hotel on Thursday where company officials and Guyana’s two ministers of natural resources announced the project’s commencement.

Chief Executive Officer of First Bauxite Corporation Alan Roughead said approximately 250 locals are expected to be employed when construction of the worksite is completed.

“We will employ 250 people of which 95 percent will be Guyanese national,” Roughead said. The construction is expected to last some 18 months.

The Department of Public Information says the investment is pegged at US$50M.

The company had commenced feasibility studies at the site in 2008.

Since then, the company has expended some US$20M on developing the bauxite resource in the area.

The Ministry of Business last year announced that the company has also conducted two major production trials.

Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman expressed gratitude to the company for choosing to invest in Guyana.

Boasting of the mineral’s high quality, Junior Minister of Natural Resources Simona Broomes said “the bauxite that will be mined at Bonasika is one of the best in the world and it is here in Guyana. Research has proved, I was advised yesterday, that this mineral found here is nowhere else in the world.”

In Guyana, bauxite is being produced in Region Ten –at Linden and Kwakwani by Chinese and Russian companies.

The mineral was once a big revenue earner for the country but the industry has shrunk over the years.