Govt appeals ruling in favour of Karouni miners

Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat through the Attorney General’s Chambers on Tuesday filed an appeal against the recent court ruling that miners Milton Brandford and Ayudhia Narine are lawful owners of 32 gold claims at 14 Mile Issano, Karouni.

This was revealed by Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall during his programme ‘Issues in the News’ on Tuesday.

The ruling was delivered on March 4 by Chief Justice Roxane George against Minister Vickram and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC). The GGMC has filed its appeal through its lawyers at the law firm Cameron and Shepherd.

Brandford and Narine had approached the court after the GGMC ordered the miners to remove from the claim area upon the ground that they had no permission when, in fact, the miners had owned the rights over the area in question.

The CJ in her ruling quashed the ‘order to remove from a claim area’ and the ministerial order 56 of 2023 issued by Minister Bharrat to shut down the mining of the 32 claims. She remarked that the order cannot be retroactive to affect the established rights in the claims of the miners.

On August 8, 2023, Minister Bharrat had ordered the stoppage of all mining activities in the claims’ areas owned by the miners, save and except mining activities of State bodies and corporations as directed by him.

The miners alleged that the Minister and GGMC were trying to shut down their gold mining operations and distribute the same lands by so-called lotteries to other miners. It was revealed in court documents that shortly after Minister Bharrat issued order 56 shutting down the claims held by Brandford and Narine, the Minister and the GGMC started holding several lotteries between September and December 2023 where the lands were given out to other individuals.

Brandford and Narine submitted that they were never invited to the lotteries held by the Minister and GGMC and the lotteries were never publicised in the newspapers or the Official Gazette.

As such, the Chief Justice granted an injunction against Minister Bharrat and the GGMC from awarding any claim licences in the areas to anyone except Narine and Brandford.

The Chief Justice also commanded the GGMC and the Minister to take all steps necessary to favourably process the applications for 32 claims licences made by Brandford and Narine. The Chief Justice also ordered injunctions against the GGMC and Minister Bharrat to prevent them from damaging, moving or otherwise interfering with the operations of Brandford and Narine on the claims.