Gold exploration Whenever someone thinks about mining in South America they usually start of by thinking about copper in Chile, gold in Peru, silver in Bolivia and lithium in Argentina. Looking deeper in the subject we start to see that there is gold in Ecuador and Columbia and industial metals of all types in Brazil. However very few people tend to look beyond that group of countries and because of that narrower view, many people miss out on great investing opportunities that take place in some of the other smaller less known countries.
One of these smaller countries we will look at is Guyana. Guyana is a one of the smaller South American countries that borders between Venezuela to the west, Suriname to the east and Brazil to the south. The country covers and area of 83,000 square miles and has a population of less than one million. Guyana use to be called British Guyana as it was a British colony under British rule and today the country still follows British law and English is the official language.
Guyana may be a small country but it is big on mining. In fact Guyana is very often called the "Land of Eldorado" because of the vast amounts of quanties of bauxite, manganeese, diamonds and gold along with other precious stones that are buried within the ground of this country. Historic records show that mining for gold from surface deposits began in the Amazon region as early as the 16th century. Since that time, it's estimated that over 50 million ounces of gold exploration have been extracted from this region as opposed to only 12 million ounces that was extracted from California during it's 1800's Gold Rush.
gold exploration
Most people have the preception that mining in Guyana is just small time artisanal miners working the river beds with old antiquated tools gathering a few grams of gold per day. That much is fact that there is alot of small time operators. Infact many operate their small hand mining operations on property owned by major mining companies. However Guyana not only sees individuals coming into the country to explore but also public companies. Companies from all over the world have come here to explore and some of these companies have done very well. Of course some people may dispute that fact of Guyana being a good place to explore. All lot of the nay sayers will immediately point to some of the most recently aired TV episodes of Todd Hoffman and his gang of the Gold Rush series who went down to Guyana and tried their hand at gold mining only to find themselves packing up and heading home empty handed. Being a reality TV show however can not really be rated as 100% factual as there is always that twist of dramma that is added in. Real companies do their homework and have funds on hand before jumping into the mining game in some foreign country. Fact is that right now in Guyana some companies are thriving and have very successful gold mining operations.
(Artisinal miners working in Guyana)
While most goldmining operations in the country are smaller alluvial/placer mines, there are larger operations that are open pit and underground also. One of the larger gold mining operations in Guyan is none other than Guyana GoldfieldsGUY. Guyana Goldfields has the Aurora gold exploration Mine. This mine reached commercial production January 1, 2016 and is designed to produce 3.3 million ounces of gold, averaging 220,000 ounces per year, over an initial 15 year mine life. Of the total of 3.3 Moz ounces recovered over the life of the mine, 1.7 Moz are sourced from the open pit operations and 1.6 Moz are sourced from the underground operations.
Another well advanced gold project is the Toroparu Gold Project owned by Sandspring ResourcesSSP. This project is a 62,603-hectare mineral concession in the Upper Puruni River Region of western Guyana. A pre-feasibility study completed for the Toroparu Project outlined the design of an open-pit mine producing 228,000 ounces of gold per year over an initial 16-year mine life.
Another company doing work in Guyana is Australian miner Troy ResourcesTRY. Troy holds two main project areas in Guyana. Both were obtained through the acquisition of Azimuth Resources. The exploration to date has been focused on the Karouni Block where Azimuth outlined Inferred Resources of 1.6Moz at the Smarts Deposit and Hicks Deposits.
One of the newest entries into Guyana is Guyana GoldstrikeGYA. Guyana Goldstrike is the new owner of a proven mineral concession called the Marudi Gold property. Their property is comprised of two areas, one being Mazoa Hill and the other Marudi North. A combined potential resource sits around 880,000 oz. gold. Guyana Goldstrike is not only exploring for gold but they are also active in mining as they have taken over the previous owners operations. This gold junior is featured on our website here where you can read up and get a lot more information.
EnsurgeESGI is a gold and diamond company in Guyana. The company through its subsiduary, North American Resources Inc. has been conducting gold exploration and mining for over twenty years. They currently operate two cutterhead dredges on the Konawaruk river. Ensurge also has mining operations in the Kaburi river regions. The mine consists of 1000 acres of mining rights with the rights to prospect another several thousand acres. The area is an historical gold producer and is adjacent to the largest ongoing mining project in Guyana.
Junior miner Goldsource MinesGXS is exploring its Eagle Mountain gold project which is located approximately 45 km from the historic Omai Gold Mine, which profitably produced an estimated four million ounces of gold at an average grade of approximately 1.4 g/t, from 1993 to 2005. The Eagle Mountain project is located in the Madhia area wher historical production is estimated at over one million ounces of gold from alluvial and eluvial sources.https://www.youtube.com/embed/2L-XRESHV4M
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