Bosai’s Matthew’s Ridge Manganese operation underway
─113 Guyanese employed
DPI, Guyana, Friday March 29, 2019
To date, 113 Guyanese have already been employed with Guyana Manganese Incorporated (GMI), the local company formed by Bosai Minerals to head its operations at Matthew’s Ridge, Region One.
Earlier today, Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman and Minister of Public Affairs, Dawn Hastings-Williams, visited the region to get a first-hand look at what’s taking place thus far.
At their first stop, the ministers, along with a contingent including technical ministerial staff; a GGMC engineer and an environmentalist inspected a washer plant where ore will be processed, all a part of the manganese operations.
General Manager of Matthew’s Ridge Operation Jason Wong explains shows a map of Bosai (GMI) manganese operations at Matthew’s Ridge, Region One to Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, and Minister of Public Affairs, Dawn Hastings-Williams
At the site, Minister Trotman said in spite of delays, due in part to land slippage and environmental clearance, he was happy with the employment figures and prospects of the company.
“We intend to restart the manganese operations shortly, as you can see work is ongoing” stated Minister Trotman
The Minister will soon meet with the Company’s management about its actual startup date. “We intend, as government, to work with them to regain some ground” assured Minister Trotman
Minister Hastings-Williams was also impressed with the employment figures – 113 local to 23 expatriates. She said it was important for the local community to benefit, however, there were still challenges.
“They (Bosai) need over 300 workers and they want to employ persons from Region One, which we are happy about, however, there may be a challenge based on the skills they would need here.”
The Minister said this issue would need to be looked at as a matter of urgency. “I’m looking at a collaboration with the Matthew’s Ridge community and the project for training and employment.”
GMI/ Bosai has set a timeframe of July 2019 to develop the mines, plant and factories to begin extracting the mineral. During the first phase of construction, the mined ore processing plant, washing plant, warehouses and factory will be established.
The company is investing approximately US$100M in this stage of development.
Guyana Manganese Incorporated purchased four prospecting licences that cover an area of 45,729 acres, exploration results, mineral agreement, certain properties and infrastructure from Reunion Manganese Incorporated (RMI) of Canada in November 2016.
Felecia Valenzuela
Image: Tejpaul Bridgemohan