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Omai President says Guyana one of few countries eager for early start of gold production Jul 18, 2024 News Elaine Ellingham, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Omai Gold Mines. Kaieteur News – Elaine Ellingham, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Omai Gold Mines, said that the Guyana Government has been pushing them along to get into gold production. Ellingham made the comments during an interview back in March this year with Crux Investor and streamed on their YouTube Channel. Crux Investor is an analysis platform that provides in-depth insights on mining stocks and investments. They offer expert analysis on various commodities, development stages, and global mining projects, empowering investors to make informed decisions. This year, the Canadian company announced significant milestones with its project, located in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni). Omai holds a 100% interest in the gold project, which encompasses two gold deposits: the shear-hosted Wenot Deposit and the adjacent intrusive-hosted Gilt Creek Deposit. During the interview, Ellingham highlighted a meeting with Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali, emphasising the government’s enthusiastic support for mining initiatives. Ellingham stated, “He’s (President Ali) got a lot on his plate and you can imagine the offshore oil business in Guyana is just attracting so much foreign interest and foreign investment.” However, Omai’s CEO stated that Guyana’s head-of-state still finds time to stay updated on the company’s progress. “But you know they really value mining, they remember when Omai was in production…so Omai in particular has kind of a special place in the hearts and souls,” Ellingham stated. “They always wanna know how Omai is doing and how soon it can be in production so we need to forge forward,” she added. She added that the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Guyana Geology & Mines Commission (GGMC) are equally keen to see Omai back in production soon. Ellingham underscored Guyana’s unique position among global jurisdictions, noting the government’s proactive role in fostering mining activities.  She remarked, “There’s very few jurisdictions in the world, where you know you have a government that’s kinda routing for you and wanting to see you advance.” This publication had reported that the results from its first Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for the Wenot Project revealed that the project is slated to yield over 142,000 ounces of gold annually over a 13-year mine life. At its peak, production is anticipated to soar to 184,000 ounces in a single year, with a total estimated production of 1,840,000 ounces of payable gold. On February 8, 2024, the Company announced an updated Mineral Resources Estimate (MRE) for the Omai Property. The combined estimates from the Wenot and Gilt Creek deposits stands at 2.0 million ounces of gold grading at 2.15 g/t gold in the indicated category and 2.3 million ounces of gold grading at 2.26 g/t in the inferred category. This represents a notable increase compared to the previous resource estimate conducted in October 2022, with indicated ounces seeing a 4% uptick and inferred ounces experiencing a substantial 28% surge. Back in 2020, Omai re-entered Guyana’s mining industry. The company had said that their work completed thus far, has put them on track to become the next large-scale gold mine to open in Guyana. Notably, by 2026, Omai and three other Canadian mining companies are expected to start gold production in their respective mining projects in Guyana. This was revealed by Senior Minister within the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh during his 2024 budget estimates presentation. Related Similar Articles

World investing more in clean energy – IEA 2024 report Jul 18, 2024 News Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo …as countries wean off fossil fuels  Kaieteur News – The world is now investing twice as much in clean energy compared to fossil fuels, a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) has found. The IEA in its World Energy Investment 2024 report, released in June, explained that global energy investment is set to exceed US$3 trillion for the first time in 2024, with US$2 trillion going to clean energy technologies and infrastructure. According to the document, “Investment in clean energy has accelerated since 2020, and spending on renewable power, grids and storage is now higher than total spending on oil, gas, and coal.” The International Energy Agency said as the era of cheap borrowing comes to an end, certain kinds of investment are being held back by higher financing costs, however, the impact on project economics has been partially offset by easing supply chain pressures and falling prices. The reduced cost of solar power in recent years contributed to these investments. “Solar panel costs have decreased by 30% over the last two years, and prices for minerals and metals crucial for energy transitions have also dropped sharply, especially the metals required for batteries,” the World Energy Investment 2024 report stated. This year, clean energy investments are set to approach US$320 billion, up by more 50% since 2020. The gains primarily come from higher investments in renewable power, now representing half of all power sector investments. According to the report, “Progress in India, Brazil, parts of Southeast Asia and Africa reflects new policy initiatives, well-managed public tenders, and improved grid infrastructure.” Additionally, Africa’s clean energy investments in 2024, at over US$40 billion, are nearly double those in 2020. Be that as it may, the IEA pointed out that more needs to be done in this regard since in most cases, this growth comes from a very low base and many of the least-developed economies are being left behind with several facing acute problems servicing high levels of debt. Despite the massive reduction in the cost for solar power generation, the Government of Guyana is pushing ahead with its plan to construct a US$2B Gas-to-Energy project in the absence of a feasibility study. That project is expected to provide the national grid with 300 megawatts (MW) of electricity. The administration has been challenged in the past to prove the gas project a more feasible option compared to gas but has failed to do so. In fact, the argument put forth by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo is that solar cannot provide a stable source of electricity. Award winning international Lawyer, Melinda Janki in a letter to the United States Export Import (US-EXIM) Bank in April this year flagged government’s failure to publish coherent and convincing financial analysis to support the business case for the gas project. In her April 25, 2024, letter to the President of the US-EXIM Bank, Reta Jo Lewis, Janki indicated that the financial institution might wish to obtain this information before further considering the government’s loan application. It was reported in April 2023 that the GoG applied to the US-EXIM Bank for a US$646M loan to fund a natural gas-fired power plant and natural gas liquids plant to be constructed by contractor CH4-Lindsayca. The plants, to be constructed at Wales, West Bank Demerara are part of the GTE project, which also includes a pipeline being built by ExxonMobil Guyana Limited to transport the gas from offshore to the site. The US-EXIM Bank has not yet approved Guyana’s application for the loan and is said to be in the concluding phase of its independent analysis of the project. “The cost of this Project will be borne by the Guyanese public because the government will have to take money from the public purse or use public assets such as oil in order to pay ExxonMobil Guyana and the other contractors. Similarly, any loan from Exim Bank will have to be paid back from public money,” the Lawyer reasoned. To this end, she explained that the people of Guyana are therefore entitled to see that the proposed gas project is financially viable before the government seeks to borrow money to proceed. She argued, “It is not sufficient for the government to make promises. Economic development is not a matter of wishful thinking. Economic development requires robust economic analysis of the global energy market. The proposed project will lock Guyana into gas at a time when the fossil fuel industry is in decline and is likely to leave Guyana with stranded assets and an adverse impact on Guyana’s economy.” Related Similar Articles

As Gaza’s doctors struggle to save lives, many lose their own in Israeli airstrikes Jul 18, 2024 News BEIRUT (AP) — Dr. Hassan Hamdan was one of the few trained plastic surgeons in Gaza, a specialist in wound reconstruction. His skills were vitally needed as Israel’s military onslaught filled hospitals with patients torn by blasts and shrapnel, so the 65-year-old came out of retirement to help. Earlier this month, an Israeli airstrike killed him along with his wife, son, two daughters, a daughter-in-law, a son-in-law, six grandchildren and one other person, as his family sheltered in their home in an Israeli-declared “safe zone.” Israel’s 9-month-old war with Hamas in Gaza has decimated the territory’s medical system. Israeli raids have wreaked physical destruction on hospitals, and health facilities have been hit and evacuated. But also, it has devastated Gaza’s medical personnel. More than 500 health care workers have been killed since October, either during assaults on hospitals or in strikes on homes, according to the U.N. Israel says it is targeting Hamas, which it claims has embedded itself in the medical system, using hospitals as military command centers and ambulances to carry fighters. Gaza’s health workers deny the accusation. Many of those killed in the campaign have been specialists like Hamdan. Dr. Ahmed al-Maqadma, also a reconstructive surgeon and a former fellow at U.K. Royal College, was found shot to death alongside his mother, a general practitioner, on a street outside Gaza City’s Shifa hospital after a two-week raid on the facility by Israeli forces in April. One of Gaza’s most prominent fertility doctors, Omar Ferwana, was killed along with his family in a strike on his home in October. The territory’s only liver transplant doctor, Hamam Alloh, was killed in a hit on his home in Gaza City. Tank shelling on a northern Gaza hospital during a siege in November killed three doctors, including two doctors working with Doctors Without Borders, according to the group. They are among a total of six staffers from the international charity killed in the war. Israel has detained doctors and medical staff. At least two have died in Israeli detention, allegedly of ill-treatment: the head of Shifa’s orthopedics department, Adnan al-Bursh, and the head of a women’s hospital, Iyad al-Rantisi. Israel has not returned either man’s body. Hundreds of other medical workers have been displaced or left Gaza altogether. Along with the personal toll, their deaths rob Gaza’s medical system of their skills when they have become crucial. Since the Hamas attack against Israel on Oct. 7 — which left some 1,200 people dead and 250 kidnapped — Israel’s campaign has killed more than 38,000 people in Gaza and wounded more than 88,000, according to local health officials. Malnutrition and disease have become widespread as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians cram into squalid tent camps. Dr. Adam Hamawy, a former U.S. Army combat plastic surgeon who volunteered in Gaza in May, said Hamdan’s death “leaves a significant void that will be hard to fill.” Like many in Gaza, he believes Israel is deliberately destroying the health system. Israel has besieged, raided and occupied at least eight hospitals, causing heavy destruction, and has hit medical convoys and ambulances. The Israeli army said in a statement that Hamawy’s accusation was “outrageous.” Israel has accused Hamas of gathering and regrouping its forces in hospitals and has shown evidence of some Hamas presence in hospitals, including weapons caches, a single dead-end tunnel under Shifa hospital and video of militants bringing several wounded hostages to hospitals. But the evidence it has made public has not appeared to show significant command centers. Under international humanitarian law, hospitals enjoy protected status, but they can lose that status if they are used for military purposes. Even then, any military operations against them must be proportional to the threat and weighed against harm to civilians. Twenty-three of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are out of service, and the rest are only partially functioning, according to the latest U.N. figures. Only five field hospitals out of nine are operational. And more than 60% of Gaza’s primary health facilities have shut down. Hamdan’s death leaves only one other specialist in reconstructive plastic surgery in Gaza. Other doctors have had to learn the skills of repairing major wounds on the job amid relentless daily waves of maimed patients. Hamawy saw firsthand the need during his work in Gaza as part of an international medical team that came to help the territory’s health workers. During three weeks at the European General Hospital in Khan Younis, he said he performed 120 surgeries, more than half of them on children, and all but one of them for treatment and reconstruction of war wounds. Two colleagues at the hospital were killed in strikes on their homes while he was there, and he spoke to doctors who had been released from Israeli detention and described being tortured, he said. Hamawy said a general surgeon at the hospital stepped in to fill the demand for plastic surgeons, but he had no formal training. Five medical students volunteered with him. They “are doing their best to fill in the gap,” Hamawy said. On July 2, the European General Hospital evacuated its staff and patients, fearing it would be attacked. That left Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah and a field hospital in Rafah as the only facilities able to offer reconstructive surgery, said Dr. Ahmed al-Mokhallalati, Gaza’s last reconstructive plastic surgery specialist. Al-Mokhallalati said he has been rushing between hospitals, at one point overseeing treatment for 400 patients in one and 500 in another. At the Rafah field hospital, he was doing up to 10 surgeries a day. “It is a very critical situation,” he said. Hamdan founded the burns and plastic surgery department in Khan Younis’ Nasser Medical complex in 2002, after serving at the territory’s first such unit, at Shifa hospital. He headed the department at Nasser until 2019, when he retired. When the Israeli army invaded Hamdan’s home city of Khan Younis in December, he returned as a volunteer at Nasser, Gaza’s second largest hospital, said his son Osama Hamdan, an orthopedic surgeon. His colleagues said he was cool under pressure. “The smile never left his face,” said Dr. Mohamad Awad, a surgeon who worked with him. Soon after, Israeli forces besieged and raided Nasser Hospital, forcing its evacuation. Hamdan was displaced, taking shelter in the home of one of his daughters in Deir al-Balah, further north. Troops occupied Nasser hospital for weeks, wreaking extensive damage. After they withdrew, the facility was rehabilitated. In mid-June, Hamdan returned home and was discussing returning to work with hospital officials. On July 1, Israel ordered another evacuation of Khan Younis. Hamdan and his family fled again, returning to his daughter’s home in Deir al-Balah. Only hours after they arrived, an airstrike hit the building on July 2 – “a direct hit with two rockets on my sister’s apartment,” Osama Hamdan said. He said no one in the family was affiliated with militant groups. The Israeli military did not respond to requests for comment on the strike. Osama was on duty in the emergency room at Nasser hospital when he received the call. His wife and two sons – 3 and 5 years old – were among those killed. “I was only able to collect some body parts of my kids and their mother because of how huge the explosion was,” he said. One of his sisters died days later in the hospital from her wounds. Another sister remains in intensive care. Osama is feeling partially responsible. “I had pressed him to leave Khan Younis,” he said in a text message, marked with two broken hearts emojis. Related Similar Articles

Cops find guns, drugs, ammo in South Ruimveldt operation Jul 18, 2024 News The guns, and ammunition found in the pink suitcase Kaieteur News – The Guyana Police Force (GPF) on Wednesday said ranks from its Criminal Investigation Headquarters’ Narcotics branch found a suitcase with “high-powered firearms and ammunition” in an alleyway at South Ruimveldt Georgetown. Further down the alley, they also found a black plastic containing 3.2 pounds of marijuana. Police said that the discovery was made on Tuesday during an intelligence-led operation between 18:00hrs and 21:30 hrs. “Led by a Cadet Officer, the ranks conducted searches in an ‘alleyway’ located at Park Place, South Ruimveldt, which is bordered by a playfield and three houses” police said. The three pounds of cannabis found Under some zinc sheets in a clump of bushes, they found a pink suitcase and when they opened it, they found one black AR rifle,  one black and blue AR rifle, one Ruger 9mm pistol with a magazine, one Taurus 9mm pistol with a magazine,  one BSA telescopic sight, three ATN Viper telescopic sight, one Bushnell range finder, 19 rounds of 9mm ammunition, 106 rounds of .380 ammunition, 156 rounds of 12 gauge cartridges, 925 rounds of .223 ammunition,  20 rounds of .270WIN ammunition, 33 rounds .68 ammunition, 76 rounds .45 ammunition and 117 rounds .44 ammunition. Police are presently conducting ballistics testing on the firearm found and investigators are pursuing persons for questioning. Investigation is ongoing. Related Similar Articles

MP raises critical questions about construction of Qatari seafront hotel Jul 18, 2024 News Kaieteur News – Alliance For Change (AFC) Member of Parliament (MP) David Patterson has raised four critical questions in relation to the deal made by the Government and a Qatari firm for the construction a seafront hotel and resort along Carisfesta Avenue, Georgetown. AFC MP, David Patterson The questions are set to be posed to the Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance and the Public Service, Dr. Ashni Singh at the next sitting of the National Assembly on August 2, 2024. Last February, Assets Group Inc., a Qatari firm announced the construction of the Georgetown Seafront Resort and Convention Centre which is to be built on sport grounds formally under the control of Guyana National Service (GNS) and the National Insurance Scheme (NIS). During a groundbreaking ceremony in February, President, Irfaan Ali described the project as a boost to Guyana’s tourism and hospitality sector. However, questions have since been raised about the ownership of the land that the multiple hotel projects pegged to be constructed with the Georgetown Mayor and City Council objecting to the project on the grounds of alleged ownership. Members of the Opposition-led city council have sought to block the project and even threatened legal action.  The government has nevertheless been adamant that it will move forward with the construction of the hotel on the basis that the GNS and NIS grounds are properties under the control of the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC), an agency controlled by central government. Patterson is now raising critical question about the feasibility of the project as well as the scope and impact on the hotel construction. The AFC MP is seeking a response from the Minister with the Responsibility for Finance as to whether a feasibility study was done prior to the vesting of the lands and signing of any concessional agreements? If so, Patterson wants the Minister to provide the National Assembly with the copies of the feasibility study. Further with regard to the hotel construction, the AFC MP is asking the government to clarify if the project incorporates other prime land space along Carifesta Avenue. He noted that while construction of the Georgetown Seafront resort and Convention Centre is set to be built on sport grounds formally under the control of GNS and the NIS, it is critical to know whether the final scope of this development project also includes incorporation of additional public spaces, namely the National Park and Saint Stanislaus College Sports Ground. Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali among officials participating in the ground-breaking ceremony for the Georgetown Seafront Resort and Convention Centre, on February 18, 2024. In the interest of transparency, Patterson is also requesting a copy of the concessional agreement the Qatari group secured with the government be produced in the National Assembly. “Can the Honourable Minister provide the National Assembly with copies of any concessional agreement/s signed between the developer, Assets Group Inc. and/or its subsidiaries with the Government of Guyana?” Patterson’s question set for the National Assembly states. Additionally, the opposition MP is raising concerns about the Environmental Impact of the Hotel Project. “Can the Honourable Minister advise if an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was done prior to the vesting of the lands and signing of any concessional agreements? If so, can the Minister provide the National Assembly with the copies of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report?” he asks. Back in February, President Ali addressed the groundbreaking ceremony, describing the Georgetown Resort as a symbol of the growing partnership between Guyana and Qatar. He believes there is potential for a continuous flow of investments into Guyana. “Since we have established a strong focus on the Middle East and other parts of the world that were not traditionally focused on investment in this region, we have seen tremendous interest, and Qatar is one of those countries that has shown remarkable speed in expanding transforming this interest into reality,” he said. The complex, to be developed by Qatari company Assets Group Inc., is set to be a state-of-the-art facility, including 261 hotel rooms, 150 service apartments, premium villas, a health club, and a world-class convention centre. Spanning 76,000 square meters, the complex will complement the construction of many internationally recognized hotels in Guyana. According to President Ali, it was slated to add 1,300 world-class rooms to the local market by the end of 2024. Related Similar Articles