Mining industry of Suriname

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Rosebel Mine in Suriname. Rosebel mine 2.png
Rosebel Mine in Suriname.

The mineral industry of Suriname makes up a large proportion of the country's economy. [1] In 1916, the Aluminium Company of America began mining bauxite in the then Dutch colony of Surinam which over time became Suriname's main export. [2]

Contents

Gold and petroleum contributed to nearly 67% of the country’s total exports in 2017. The mining industry accounts for about 85% of exports and 25% of government revenues. [3] Gold mining is controversial due to the impact of Indigenous people. [4]

Gold mining

There is one large scale gold mine operating in Suriname. [5] This is the Rosebel Gold Mine. Development of a second large scale mine called the Merian Gold Project was approved by the government of Suriname on June 7, 2013. This mining project would be a partnership of Newmont Mining Corporation and Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals. Merian is about 60 kilometres (40 mi) south of the town of Moengo on the Marowijne River. [6] [7] The government estimates there are another 20,000 small scale operators. Only 115 of these were registered by the government in 2009. The government calls these people porknokkers. [8] Because of unemployment in Suriname, some local people turn to small, illegal gold mining as their source of incomes. Gold mining has caused environmental damages in the country.

Commission for the Ordering of the Gold Mining Sector

Establishment of Ordening Goudsector (OGS)

Commission for the Ordering of the Gold Mining Sector (OGS) was established by the government in 2010. [9] [10] OGS is leading the reform effort to develop sustainable and environmentally responsible gold mining practices and transform informal small-scale gold mining into a viable sub-sector of the mining and national economy of Suriname. [11]

Ban on mercury use in small-scale mining

Suriname does not produce chemical mercury and only allows mercury imports with a license. Since the 1990s these licenses were not issued anymore. Moreover, all licenses are used for mercury imports for medical use or research. Therefore, trade and import in mercury is illegal. [12] Mercury is used in the small-scale gold mining because smuggling made mercury available. However people who are caught with mercury in their possession will be judged and/or fined. [13] [14] [15] [16]

Foreign investment

On April 13, 2013, the government reached an agreement with multinational IAMGOLD to increase investment in Suriname. [17] [18]

Kaloti Mint House Suriname

On March 1, 2013, Kaloti Mint House Suriname laid its funding stone and is expected to start its refinery production by the first quarter of 2014. [19] Kaloti Mint House will be instrumental in producing "clean gold" in Suriname. [20] Kaloti Mint House have been awarded the ISO 9001:2000 certification for gold and bullion manufacturing and ISO 14001 Environmental Certification. The company is presently applying for ISO 14025 for the Assaying of Gold and Silver. Kaloti will focus on melting and producing gold bars to international standards (999.9 purity) for local and international markets. [21]

Minamata Treaty

In October 2013, the United Nations wanted to adopt the Minamata Treaty to ban the user of mercury altogether in Suriname. [22] [23]

The School of Mining

The Government of Suriname initiated a training unit within the Ordening Goudsector called the School of Mining. [11] This training unit consists of 14 teachers. The teacher's training started February 2013 and is aimed at preparing them for the fieldwork. The duties of the teachers will be to provide hands-on training on the goldfields to small-scale gold miners. The teachers begin with prospecting and showing the small-scale miners more efficient ways to mine in their areas. Along the way they promote mercury free production methods. The Management of Ordening Goudsector hypothesizes that showing small-scale gold miners the benefits of new production methods will be the incentive itself to start the training programs. [16]

Entrepreneurial Credit Fund

The Ministry of Finance initiated a credit fund in March 2013 for small and medium scale entrepreneurs. Small-scale miners can become formally verified entrepreneurs as the piece of land will be viewed as a formal "title" by financial institutes. This means the miners will be eligible for credits and thus can acquire credit to upscale their production. A first amount of 35 million SRD (US$10.69 million, as of Monday, Apr 8, 2013, 04:15 PM GMT) is available for credit through the Central Bank. [24]

Mining zones

The Mining Law says that one can only mine with a license from the Government. Ordening Goudsector regulates the concessionaires, how many machine owners there are and what the movements of small-scale miners are. [25] New mining areas are still being issued. However it is important to note that data show that the interesting area to mine, especially for the small-scale miners who look for alluvial gold, is the Greenstone belt. The greenstone runs from Guyana, through Suriname, into French Guiana. This greenstone belt, however, only counts for 15% of the Surinamese surface. At the moment almost all areas in this belt are already given out in concessions.

Bauxite

Suralco bauxite refinery in the town of Paranam in 2008 Suriname, Suralco Bauxite Factory.JPG
Suralco bauxite refinery in the town of Paranam in 2008

The mining of bauxite in Suriname has been known since 1915 and its export dates back to 1922, with the start of its exploitation by the American company Alcoa. [26] Suriname's production was 280,000 tonnes, on average, before 1939, and it reached 2,699,000 tonnes in 1951, eight times more, then 3,421,000 in 1954 and 3,377,000 in 1957. [27] The strategic nature of this resource allowed Suriname to benefit from the protection of the United States during the Second World War, and to attract investments from large companies such as Shell, BHP Billiton, and Alcoa. [26]

Afobaka Dam was built between 1961 and 1964 on the Suriname River to produce energy for the electrolysis process for the production of aluminium from bauxite at the Suralco alumina refinery which was managed by Alcoa from 1965 to 2017. [28]

Iron

To a lesser extent compared to other minerals, Suriname also produces iron. [29]

Hydrocarbons

In January 2020, the French and American oil companies Total and Apache announced that they had made a major discovery of oil and gas off the coast of Suriname. [30] In September 2020, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Suriname to discuss the country's oil potential, meets with and congratulates new President Chan Santokhi, and touted U.S. companies facing competition from China to exploit the country's natural resources. [31]

Controversies

Illegal mining is a large problem in Suriname. [32]

Related Research Articles

The economy of Suriname was largely dependent upon the exports of aluminium oxide and small amounts of aluminium produced from bauxite mined in the country. However, after the departure of Alcoa, the economy depended on the exports of crude oil and gold. Suriname was ranked the 124th safest investment destination in the world in the March 2011 Euromoney Country Risk rankings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bauxite, Arkansas</span> City in Arkansas, United States

Bauxite is a city in Saline County, Arkansas, United States. Located within Central Arkansas, the city is named for bauxite, the source ore for aluminum, which was found in abundant quantities in the area and became a source of aluminium refining. The city's population boomed during expanded aluminium production during World War II and shrank rapidly with output of the ore. Bauxite was incorporated as a town in 1973. The population was 487 at the 2010 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gold mining</span> Process of extracting gold from the ground

Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moengo</span> Resort in Marowijne District, Suriname

Moengo is a town in Suriname, located in the Marowijne district, between Paramaribo and the border town Albina on the Cottica River. Moengo is also a resort (municipality) in the district of Marowijne. Moengo was the capital of Marowijne District between 1932 and 1945. The current capital is Albina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paranam</span> Place in Para District, Suriname

Paranam is a town in the Para District, Suriname. Paranam was created in 1938 for a bauxite factory. In 1965, an aluminium smelter was added. The factories closed down in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benzdorp</span> Place in Sipaliwini District, Suriname

Benzdorp is a village in the Sipaliwini District of Suriname. It is named after the English consul and bullion dealer H.J.W. Benz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mining industry of Ghana</span>

The Mining industry of Ghana accounts for 5% of the country's GDP and minerals make up 37% of total exports. Gold contributes over 90% of the total mineral exports. Thus, the main focus of Ghana's mining and minerals development industry remains focused on gold. Ghana is Africa's largest gold producer, producing 80.5 t in 2008. Ghana is also a major producer of bauxite, manganese and diamonds. Ghana has 20 large-scale mining companies producing gold, diamonds, bauxite and manganese; over 300 registered small scale mining groups; and 90 mine support service companies. Other mineral commodities produced in the country are natural gas, petroleum, salt, and silver.

Iamgold Corporation is a Canadian company that owns and operates gold mines in Burkina Faso and Canada. Headquartered in Toronto, the company was incorporated in 1990, and went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 1996, with additional shares being listed on the New York Stock Exchange beginning in 2005. The company formerly owned or had stakes in the Sadiola and Yatela gold mines in Mali, the Mupane gold mine in Botswana, the Niobec niobium mine in Quebec, as well as a royalty in the Diavik Diamond Mine.

Golden Star Resources Ltd was a Canadian company that owned and operated the Wassa gold mine in Ghana. The company formerly owned and operated the Bogoso-Prestea gold mine, also in Ghana, from 1999 to 2020. Headquartered in London, but with a registered office in Toronto, it was a public company with shares listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and cross-listed on the NYSE American and Ghana Stock Exchange. In 2022 the company was acquired by Shanghai Stock Exchange-listed Chifeng Jilong Gold Mining. Golden Star Resources was founded in 1984 by geologist Roger Morton and former football player Dave Fennell to pursue mineral interest in Guyana and formed a joint venture with Cambior to develop the Omai Mine. They changed their focus in 1999 to pursue owning and operating its own gold mines in Ghana.

The Société d'Exploitation des Mines d'Or de Sadiola S.A (SEMOS) project is an open-pit gold mine situated near Sadiola, in the Kayes Region of Mali. The mine was discovered based on the fieldwork of Canadian geologist James C. Snell P. Eng., on behalf of IAMGOLD founder Mark Nathanson. Nathanson took credit for the rich discovery, leaving Snell to fend off an assassination attempt on the streets of London England days after giving his geological report to Nathanson and financiers without payment. After years of seeking justice, Snell committed suicide in east Vancouver Canada. Nathanson became a philanthropist giving a large sum of money to York University in Toronto Canada. Sadiola was jointly owned by AngloGold Ashanti and IAMGOLD, who each had an effective holding of 41%, while the Government of Mali owned the remaining 18%. The International Finance Corporation originally held 6% of the mine put sold this share equally to AGA and IAMGOLD in December 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yatela Mine</span> Gold mine in Mali

The Yatela Mine is an open-pit gold mine situated near Yatela, 25 km north of Sadiola, in the Kayes Region of Mali. It is a single-pit operation. Commencing operation in 2001, heap leaching together with carbon-loading is carried out at a rate of approximately 2.9 million tonnes per year. The final step of eluting carbon and smelting the gold in the gold recovery process is completed at the Sadiola Gold Mine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artisanal mining</span> Independent, small-scale, subsistence mining

Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is a blanket term for a type of subsistence mining involving a miner who may or may not be officially employed by a mining company but works independently, mining minerals using their own resources, usually by hand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surinam (Dutch colony)</span> Dutch plantation colony in the Guianas

Surinam, also unofficially known as Dutch Guiana, was a Dutch plantation colony in the Guianas, bordered by the equally Dutch colony of Berbice to the west, and the French colony of Cayenne to the east. It later bordered British Guiana from 1831 to 1966.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minamata Convention on Mercury</span> International treaty to reduce releases of mercury

The Minamata Convention on Mercury is an international treaty designed to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds. The convention was a result of three years of meeting and negotiating, after which the text of the convention was approved by delegates representing close to 140 countries on 19 January 2013 in Geneva and adopted and signed later that year on 10 October 2013 at a diplomatic conference held in Kumamoto, Japan. The convention is named after the Japanese city Minamata. This naming is of symbolic importance as the city went through a devastating incident of mercury poisoning. It is expected that over the next few decades, this international agreement will enhance the reduction of mercury pollution from the targeted activities responsible for the major release of mercury to the immediate environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosebel gold mine</span> Gold mine in Suriname

The Rosebel gold mine is jointly owned by Iamgold (95%) and the government of Suriname (5%).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brownsberg Nature Park</span>

Brownsberg Nature Park is a nature park located in Suriname. The site measures 12,000 ha and is located in the district of Brokopondo around 130 km south from the capital city Paramaribo. The 500-meter high Brownsberg is the central point of the park. The site is located near the Brokopondo Reservoir. The park is managed by STINASU. Often the people of Suriname use the word Brownsberg as simple variant of Brownsberg Nature Park. Local people also write it as Bruijnsberg, pronounced as Braynsberg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mining industry of Madagascar</span>

The mining industry of Madagascar is mostly on a small scale, centred mainly around remote locations with large mineral deposits. Mining potential is noted in industrial and metallic minerals, energy, precious and semi-precious stones, as well as ornamental stone. The mining sector was neglected by the government for decades prior to the mid-2000s. In 2013, the mining industry, a main source of foreign investment, was struggling due to "low metals prices and distrustful companies", attributed to a 2009 coup.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mining industry of Guinea</span>

The mining industry of Guinea was developed during colonial rule. The minerals extracted consisted of iron, gold, diamond, and bauxite. Guinea ranks first in the world in bauxite reserves and 6th in the extraction of high-grade bauxite, the aluminium ore. The mining industry and exports of mining products accounted for 17% of Guinea's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010. Mining accounts for over 50% of its exports. The country accounts for 94% of Africa's mining production of bauxite. The large mineral reserve, which has mostly remained untapped, is of immense interest for international firms.

Mining in Guyana is a significant contributor to the economy owing to sizable reserves of bauxite, gold, and diamonds. Much of these resources are found in Guyana's Hilly Sand and Clay belt, a region that makes up 20% of the country.

Nieuw-Koffiekamp is a village in the resort of Brownsweg in the Brokopondo District of Suriname. It is a transmigration village built for the inhabitants of Koffiekamp which was flooded by the Brokopondo Reservoir after the construction of the Afobaka Dam.

References

  1. ↑ "Developing innovative and sustainable mining exploration in Suriname". gulfnews.com. Retrieved 2022-12-13.
  2. ↑ "Suriname country profile". BBC News. 2012-10-18. Retrieved 2022-12-13.
  3. ↑ "Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - Suriname". www.gvnet.com. Retrieved 2022-12-13.
  4. ↑ "Can Two New Bills Reshape Indigenous Rights and Illegal Gold Mining in Suriname?". Mongabay Environmental News. 2022-09-14. Retrieved 2022-12-13.
  5. ↑ "Suriname: Mining, Minerals and Fuel Resources". AZoMining.com. 2012-08-09. Retrieved 2022-12-13.
  6. ↑ "Merian Gold Project, Suriname". Archived from the original on 2013-03-19. Retrieved 2013-05-10.
  7. ↑ "Suriname lawmakers approve Newmont gold mining deal". Reuters. June 8, 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-13.
  8. ↑ Cairo, Ivan (January 11, 2011). "Suriname government starts structuring gold mining industry". Caribbean News Now. Retrieved 2013-05-10.
  9. ↑ "Suriname government starts structuring gold mining industry - Caribbean News Now". Caribbeannewsnow.com. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  10. ↑ "Suriname moves to end chaos in its gold sector". Caribbean Life. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  11. 1 2 "The Suriname Small Scale Gold Mining Sector" (PDF). Gov.sr. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  12. ↑ "Government Act" (PDF). Gov.sr. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  13. ↑ "Starnieuws - US$ 4000 boete voor bezit kwik". Starnieuws.com. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  14. ↑ "NoSpang - Suriname Network Online". Nospang.org. Archived from the original on 13 June 2015. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  15. ↑ "Starnieuws - Nimos zet eerste stap naar uitbanning kwikgebruik". Starnieuws.com. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  16. 1 2 "Nimos neemt aanloop uitbanning kwikgebruik - DWTonline.com". Archived from the original on June 15, 2013. Retrieved July 22, 2019.
  17. ↑ "IAMGOLD - IAMGOLD definitive agreement with Government of Suriname approved by National Assembly". Iamgold.com. Archived from the original on 13 June 2015. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  18. ↑ "IAMGOLD Corporation - IAMGOLD definitive agreement with Government of Suriname approved by National Assembly". Newswire.ca. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  19. ↑ "Dubai's Kaloti to set up gold refinery in Surinam". Tradearabia.com. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  20. ↑ "Kaloti mint house will not cause pollution - DWTonline.com". Archived from the original on 2013-03-15. Retrieved 2013-04-22.
  21. ↑ "Precious Metal Services & Solutions in Dubai: Kalotico.com". Kalotico.com.
  22. ↑ "Minamata Convention Agreed by Nations". Unep.org. Archived from the original on 9 February 2014. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  23. ↑ "Draft text for a global legally binding instrument on mercury" (PDF). Gov.sr. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  24. ↑ "Error 404 - Centrale Bank van Suriname" . Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  25. ↑ "Kabinet van de President - Wetgeving en relevante docs". Archived from the original on 2016-03-13. Retrieved 2013-04-22.
  26. 1 2 "Français: Bauxite et alumine". www.histalu.org. Retrieved 2024-05-17.
  27. ↑ Lerat, Serge (1958). "Bauxite et aluminium dans le monde". Les Cahiers d'Outre-Mer. 11 (44): 389–425. doi:10.3406/caoum.1958.2095.
  28. ↑ "Au Suriname, le choix de l'industrie". Suriname (in French). 2019-07-12.
  29. ↑ "Suriname - Bauxite, Agriculture, Mining | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2024-05-17.
  30. ↑ "Total, Apache make fourth hydrocarbon discovery in Suriname's Block 58" . Retrieved 2024-05-17.
  31. ↑ "Au Surinam, Pompeo vante la «libre entreprise» américaine face à la concurrence chinoise". Le Figaro.fr (in French). 2020-09-17. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  32. ↑ "What Are The Biggest Industries In Suriname?". WorldAtlas. 2019-05-14. Retrieved 2022-12-13.
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