The mining sector has lost a substantial amount of investment over the last six months due to the crime situation in the country, says Robeson Benn, head of the Guyana Geology and Mines Com-mission (GGMC).

He estimated losses to be about US$2M to US$3M, but was optimistic that the worst had passed.

“A critical level was [about] nine months ago when we started to get reports of people being heavily armed... [but] I think the critical [period] has passed. Hopefully we have gone past it now. But certainly, the type of crime and the level of it have perhaps tripled. It has caused some of the people who have invested to consider whether they should close down those investments and leave the country,” Benn told Stabroek News during an interview at his Brickdam office on Wednesday.

According to the commissioner, there were at least three foreign investors interested in the diamond sector who have pulled their proposals over the last six months. Other miners already working the fields have had to put mechanisms in place to protect themselves from the constant robberies.

“One of the miners who has been investing a lot of money had to send away his wife because they did not feel safe anymore...all kinds of strange people were passing on the river. People who were due to come and work with him were not coming anymore because of the crime and he [the miner] is one of the best for the sector in terms of new technology, improvements to the industry,” Benn reported.

As such, the Commission has noted an increase in the number of requests for firearm licences, particularly over the last eight or nine months.

“There is an upsurge in requests and we support it, in so far as those requests for firearms were for the security of the people, their personal security and security of their investment,” Benn told this newspaper.

He said the most affected areas were the mining camps in the North West District, more particularly at Eye Lash and Kamwatta; at Mahdia and in the Kurupung area.

“We have also had problems at Eping and Perenong... From the robberies that we hear, they are higher than are being reported.”

In an effort to curb the situation and bring relief to affected miners, Benn said the Commission has been conducting regularisation exercises with the Police Force, the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), the Customs and Trade Administration and the immigration department.

“We have previously done those [regularization exercises] in Mahdia, at Amatuk, at Kurupung, Eping and Perenong and we are waiting on the availability of the police to continue that exercise.”

Earlier this year, a delegation of miners, local and foreign, pressed Prime Minister Sam Hinds for more security measures in the mining locations. Another meeting was held following an attack on the NARIL mining camp which resulted in one bandit being shot dead and several others being held by police.