Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed says he has lodged complaints with the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) over alleged illegal mining activity by the Alphonso family in the Mazaruni area, a charge the latter has denied.
In a statement yesterday on the Team Mohamed’s Facebook page, Mohamed said large-scale miners from the Alphonso family are offloading heavy-duty equipment and dredges onto lands that do not belong to them and where mining activity is prohibited.
He said the matter was reported to the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Commissioner of the GGMC, but residents remain concerned about the possible impact on waterways and farmlands. “Nothing has been done as yet and the residents are worried that their waterway would be polluted and their farmlands threatened,” he said.
Mohamed also questioned a disparity in the enforcement of mining laws, recalling that several weeks ago, a multi-agency task force comprising more than 50 armed personnel from the GGMC, Guyana Police Force (GPF), Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and the Ministry of Natural Resources had been deployed to apprehend a number of small miners, including Indigenous miners, who were allegedly operating on lands belonging to the Mohamed family in the Mazaruni area.
Since those miners were detained and taken before the courts, he said he would be looking to see if similar action would be taken against the Alphonsos.
“We are paying keen attention to see if the no less than 50 men from the Task Force will arrest, detain, seize their equipment and drag the Alphonsos before the court as in the case with the small miners.”
In response, Alphonso Mining said in a statement that Mohamed’s statements are damaging and inaccurate. The company said that Alfro Alphonso and Sons had legally acquired the subsurface rights to the gold and diamonds beneath the lands in question through an open and competitive public auction in 2014 and had paid all fees required to conduct mining activities there.
According to the company, the quarry licence granted to Hadi’s World did not extinguish the mining rights held by Alfro Alphonso and Sons under a pre-existing licence. The company rejected claims that it lacked authority over the lands, stating that it has maintained and paid for its rights to the precious minerals located there over the past 12 years.
The company further noted that illegal mining activities on the lands were halted by GGMC several weeks ago. It said it was unaware of what actions, if any, Mohamed had taken to prevent or stop those activities. The company called on the GGMC and other relevant authorities to investigate who may have supported or financed the illegal miners and who purchased the gold extracted from the area.
Additionally, Alphonso Mining said it intends to pursue legal action against individuals responsible for what it described as malicious and defamatory posts aimed at creating a false impression of wrongdoing.
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