It’s been a golden year so far for Guyana’s lucrative gold sector.
Industry experts say production is booming and the country is well on track to meeting its targets for 2017.
According to officials, just seven months into the year, more than 360,000 ounces of gold have been produced, earning just above US$450 million in revenue.
Figures released show that as of July 31, this year, a total of 367,861 ounces had been declared.
Officials say this puts the country well on track to meeting its target of 700,000 ounces of gold and already surpasses last year’s output which had been set at 600, 000 ounces.
But the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Guyana Gold Board (GGB) said the figure recorded so far is a marginal 1.96 per cent lower than 2016, when the figure then stood at 375,202 ounces.
However, exports have also been on the rise. Total exports at July 31, jumped 3.70 per cent at 377,211 ounces compared to 365,749 ounces for the same period last year.
This resulted in earnings of US$453.2 million as compared with US$442.1 million, an increase of 4.19 per cent.
Pleased with the outturn, officials attributed the strong performance to recent measures implemented by the Government to boost production and export levels in the sector.
“We continue to stress on miners to sell their gold to the GGB or to approved, licensed gold dealers so that together we could achieve and surpass the target set this year for the industry,” said Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman.