Dear Editor,
Almost three weeks ago, the Department for Public Information published a Press release for the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), an advisory notice on the sale and transfer of mining lands (September 01, 2026, https://dpi.gov.gy/press-release-ggmc-issues-advisory-on-the-sale-and-transfer-of-mining-lands/ ). This notice followed weeks and months of reports of some kinds of acquisitions of GGMC concessions for exploration and mining of Guyana’s lands, mainly for gold but also for uranium and rare-earth minerals. GGMC referred to the need for sellers to have such transactions authorised ‘under the applicable legal and regulatory framework’ but failed to indicate which sections of the Mining Act 1989 and the numerous Mining Regulations are applicable. GGMC also warned against using irrevocable powers of attorney (POAs) as proof of ownership of lawful tenure.
Selling or partly selling mining concessions has been a normal business practice for decades. What appears internationally to be valid and complete acquisition of mining rights in Guyana may be far from the truth. Prospecting Permits cannot be transferred (Mining Act section 58 (2)). Annually-renewable GGMC Prospecting Permits may continue to be valid after GGMC Mining Permits for gold extraction have been issued and are in operation.
In one case – the Tassawini gold mines inside the fully titled Amerindian Village Lands of the community of Chinese Landing – GGMC has been kept aware of at least some of the series of transactions between concession holder Wayne Vieira and the foreign mining companies.
The Mining Act 1989 is clear about ownership of medium-scale Prospecting Permits (MSPP), under section 57 (2). The Canadian company StrataGold Corporation created its subsidiary StrataGold Guyana Inc. in 2004 and under Mining Act section 57 (2) (c) could take over the MSPP number PL 14/95 previously held in the late 1990s by Wayne Vieira, re-numbered as PL 01/2005. StrataGold Guyana Inc. also acquired the adjacent Prospecting Permits numbered PL 34/2005 Anaturi MSPP in 2005 and PL 01/2011 Koriabo, PL 03/2011 St.Bede’s. Co-ownership of Prospecting Permits is allowed.
While the Mining Act 1989 is clear about the categories of permitted owner of Prospecting Permits, the Act is silent on the permitted ownership of Mining Permits. The FAQs for Land Management on the GGMC website stated in May 2024 that ‘…medium scale property titles [including Mining Permits] …are restricted to Guyanese, however, foreigners have been entering into joint arrangements whereby the two parties jointly develop the property. This is strictly by private contract.’ This FAQ appears to imply that joint ventures are tacitly allowed, provided that a Guyanese citizen appears to be in control, even if no more than a silent partner. However, this hands-off approach by the GGMC does not match the claims of Canadian and Australian mining companies reported in the international Press.
In Tassawini, Wayne Vieira has a long history of selling some rights to foreign companies while allowing local contractors to continue hydraulic mining, all under the pretence that this is State Land. Chinese Landing Village Land has been in Amerindian ownership since it was recognised in the schedule to the revised Amerindian Act 1976; confirmed by the certificate of grant of title in 1991 under the State Lands Act 1972, confirmed again in 2009 and recorded under the Land Registry Act 1959/2003 in 2018. In addition, the GGMC’s own Mineral Property Status online map shows the four Mining Permits Medium Scale (MPMS) embedded in the Chinese Landing Amerindian Village Land (AVL); https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/790ce0003be5464a815be1862ff594d9.
In spite of this clear and documented legal history, some politicians in successive governments of Guyana and in government agencies have continued to refer incorrectly to Chinese Landing AVL as ‘State Land’. Given this ignorant local approach to land ownership, it is not surprising that the international mining Press often treats the Tassawini gold mines as under State Land administration.
Papers held by the Amerindian Village Council at Chinese Landing and reviewed in 2024 show a remarkable history of overseas claims to options for ownership of the GGMC-issued concessions for the Tassawini mines:
- StrataGold Guyana Inc. for parent company StrataGold Corporation of Canada, 2004-2011. StrataGold Guyana Inc. was sold to Takara Resources Inc. in 2012.
- Takara Resources Inc. sold the Arakaka concession to Alicanto Minerals Ltd. of Australia in 2012 but let the interest in Chinese Landing revert to Wayne Vieira in 2012. Vieira was in court for a mistaken prosecution by GGMC from 2010, finally closed in 2017.
- Vieira was negotiating a purchase-option agreement with Marcel Anil Rada and 1092545 BC Ltd. (North Vancouver) of Canada in 2016. This USD 2 million deal was not concluded.
- Vieira next negotiated with Aventura Gold Ltd., a provider of mining services rather than a miner, while Aventura was in discussion with Vangold Mining Corporation, another Canadian miner, for a deal valued at USD 4 million in cash and CAN$ 12 million in equity.
- By 2018, Chatradharee Mohan had miners on the ground at Tassawini and in 2021 his company Goldeneye Capital claimed to hold the four Tassawini MPMS and was negotiating to sell to Project One Resources, another Canadian company, which changed its name to Alerio Gold Corporation. The deal included a USD 0.5 million cash payment and a 3% net smelter royalty to Goldeneye under an asset purchase agreement.
- By November 2021, Alerio Gold claimed to be in full control of Tassawini, confirmed in April 2023, and holding the MPMS which had been renewed to Chatradharee Mohan in June 2023 for five years. Jimmy Reece, Deputy Commissioner for GGMC, stated at the August 2023 ‘fact-finding’ mission to Chinese Landing that GGMC has continued to record Wayne Vieira as owner of the four MPMS, in spite of the continued GGMC errors in permit issue and renewal since 1995; reference my letter in Kiskadee Watch on August 28, 2026, ‘All Guyanese should now support Chinese Landing and advocate for a Judicial Review of Vieira’s mining permits’ (https://kiskadeewatch.com/opinion/letters/all-guyanese-should-now-support-chinese-landing-and-advocate-for-a-judicial-review-of-vieiras-mining-permits/ ).
Clearly, money has been changing hands among Australian and Canadian mining companies, and payments have been made or promised to Wayne Vieira for some of the mineral rights in Tassawini. StrataGold reported that it had paid the renewal fees for the four Mining Permits, apparently on behalf of Vieira. How Mr Chatradharee Mohan of Goldeneye Capital acquired a marketable interest is not clear. What is clear is that, after the departure of the prospector Takara/StrataGold in 2012, the Chinese Landing community has not benefitted from these international transactions, nor has the Guyana Revenue Authority.
Instead of issuing a generalised Advisory on sale and transfer, GGMC should issue a series of simple-language guides to potential sellers and buyers which quote the exact wording from the Mining Act 1989 and Mining Regulations on the eligibility rules for ownership of mining concessions and on the rules for transfers and sales. GRA will then be able to check if the Guyanese owners are paying the relevant income and capital gains taxes.
What do the Amerindian landowners get out of these deals? Little or nothing. What could they get? A lot more than they do now, as soon as GGMC follows its own policies, law and regulations in the issue and renewal of mining concessions. With the exception of one attempt by Minister Pauline Sukhai in 2011, the supervising political Ministers have been grossly negligent, failing to ensure that Amerindian legal rights are respected and that GGMC acts in a legally correct manner.
Editor, the four adjacent Mining Permits Medium Scale at Tassawini total 1,382 hectares (3413 acres), about one-fifth of Chinese Landing’s titled AVL. This account of the many private transactions for Tassawini, involving vast amounts of money, without any benefits accruing to the owners of Tassawini, is not unique. While such trading of mining concessions on State Lands is not prevented by law, Tassawini is within Chinese Landing’s titled AVL since 1976, so the four MPMS, issued in error, should never have been renewed. Elsewhere in Guyana, the customary property of many other Amerindian Villages and Communities is regularly being traded on international stock exchanges, or exchanged locally, without any benefits accruing to the rightful owners.
‘One Guyana’, but only for a select few Guyanese, and their enablers.
Yours truly,
Janette Bulkan
