Guyana is on course to achieve a record goal production and declaration target for this year. Already 367,861 ounces has been declared as at July 31, 2017.
This is according to information out of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Guyana Gold Board. The two entities are in fact confident of meeting the 700,000 ounce target set by the Minister of Finance in the 2017 National Budget. The target set for 2016 was 600,000 ounces.
This year’s half yearly declaration figure is a marginal 1.96 percent lower than 2016, when the figure as at July 31, 2016 stood at 375,202 ounces. These figures have established that the measures implemented by government to ensure both production and declarations of gold are bearing fruit.
Total exports as at July 31, 2017 jumped 3.70 percent at 377,211 ounces compared to 365,749 ounces as at July 31, 2016. This resulted in export earnings as at July 31, 2017 being US$453,210,639 as against US$442,122,180 as at July 31, 2016, an increase of 4.19 percent.
As such Minister of Natural Resources, Mr Raphael Trotman, together with the GGB, have congratulated miners, large and small, for all their efforts in spite of the challenges. “We continue to stress on miners to sell their gold to the GGB or to approved licenced gold dealers so that together we could achieve and surpass the target set this year for the industry,” a statement said.