| With falling gold prices continuing to hammer miners, Government has agreed to grant them a number of concessions including tax exemptions on fuel.Speaking during his National Budget presentation yesterday, Finance Minister Winston Jordan, disclosed that the concessions are part of the new Government’s promise on its 100-day Action Plan.Among some of the measures eligible gold miners would be benefitting from are exemptions from the payment of custom duties on fuel, matting, ATVs, jack hammer drills, flex hoses, expanding metals, pumps, pump housing, impellers, shafts and engines.The administration will use a law change to enter into a new agreement with the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) and the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) to give effect to the granting of these tax exemptions.The concessions would be among the most significant for miners who over the past two years saw prices on the world market falling to a four-year low and placing their investments in jeopardy.Scores of miners have already quit as local banks and heavy equipment suppliers moved in to repossess excavators and their loans.Miners have been asking for tax breaks on fuel which remains one of the biggest expenses for them. One of the demands has also been 4x4s vehicles and repairs to key hinterland roads used for mining. However, the new administration had warned that the budget would have some concessions, but not everything that was asked for.Gold, despite its trying times, has remained among the top foreign currency earners for Guyana despite moving from the top spot in the last three years to now behind rice and sugar.Last year, gold export receipts declined by 27.6 percent, to US$469.8M,cheap nfl jerseys china, the result of a combination of a 20.1 percent contraction in export volume, to 385,683 ounces, and a 9.4 percent decline in average export prices, to US$1,218 per ounce.There is some good news despite the relatively low world market prices, which yesterday stood at just over US$1,104 per ounce.According to Minister Jordan, gold production is poised to improve significantly in 2015/2016 and beyond. This is because large scale producer, Canadian-based Guyana Goldfields Inc., has started production of its first quantity of gold from its Aurora Gold Mine earlier this month.The company expects to produce between 30,000 and 50,000 ounces of gold in 2015 and between 120,000 and 140,000 ounces of gold in 2016.Jordan said that Guyana Goldfields Inc. has generated permanent employment for a range of skills, including heavy duty machine operators, cooks and suppliers of food items to the complex.At full operation in 2017, and with an expanded mill, about 500 persons will be permanently employed, with another 500 temporary jobs created during the construction stages in 2016.“The provision of accommodation and related services by this company to their employees has also generated service-related jobs within the sector. Collections of royalties, taxes on income and insurance payments are expected to enhance revenue collections within the public sector, while increased production will augment the national current account.”Environmentally, the company will employ modern technologies to reduce environmental externalities. Another major investment, Troy Resources Limited Karouni Gold Project in Region 7 is also expected to commence work.However, the Finance Minister was cautiously optimistic.“The return of the heady days and buoyant prices of 2012 are yearned for by the operators in the industry and no less so by the policymakers. A production resurgence of 9.7 percent was budgeted earlier in the year, based on both the anticipation of an expansion in production capacity, with the entry of new companies into the production grid, as well as the yearned for price recovery.”However, with the advantage of the first-half performance, where production was 165,976 ounces or 16.2 percent below first half 2014, the new estimate for 2015 is 390,000, or 0.6 percent increase over 2014. |
