Gold declaration dipped in first quarter of 2024 – Bank of Guyana
Guyana’s depleting gold declaration over the years
Kaieteur News – The Bank of Guyana (BoG) has reported that the country’s gold declaration decreased within the first three months of 2024.
According to the Central Bank, the declaration fell to 89,845.8 troy ounces, when compared to the same period last year. It was stated that the dip in the gold declaration was mainly due to lower declarations from small- and medium-scale miners by 24.2 %. It was explained that the lower declaration is as a result of prolonged dry weather which made access to water limited in many mining areas.
Notably, it was stated that the sole large-scale operator, Aurora Gold Mine Inc. (AGM), Zijin Mining’s, recorded an increase in declarations by 5.2%, which resulted from continued favourable performance in their underground mining operations.
In Guyana’s gold industry, there has been a noticeable decline in declarations over the past several years. Kaieteur News had reported that from 2019 to 2023, gold declarations dropped by approximately 209,000 troy ounces, according to the BOG annual reports. With Guyana’s gold declarations dropping by approximately 209,000 troy ounces over the past five years, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo expressed the Government of Guyana’s concern about this trend. He had warned that strict penalties would be imposed on those found guilty of under-reporting gold declarations to evade taxes and royalties. Jagdeo said at one of his previous press conferences, “We are still very concerned about what is happening in the market,” adding, “We believe that there are people that are not selling to the Gold Board to avoid taxes and we believe at that time that it was organised and that it was having an impact.”
