Anxiety as gold-mining company shutters doors

GEORGETOWN (CMC):

The Guyana government Tuesday described as “precipitous” a decision by the Australian-owned gold-mining company, Troy Resources, to lay off more than 300 workers, claiming that it was facing financial problems.

Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman said he has briefed the Cabinet on the situation and that while the company was offered all doors open to restart its operations, it had decided against doing so.

“We believe that every door has been open for them to resume operations in as short a time as possible and we have made that possible for them,” Trotman said.

He said the approaching holiday season was the worst time of the year to lay off workers, and that the Cabinet had put together a Ministerial Task Force to engage the company on the way forward. The task force will also engage other companies that may also be facing difficulties.

Trotman said the David Granger government was disappointed with the decision of the mining company to lay off the workers, especially because the notice was short.

“Ministers engaged the company up to last week and none of us had a sense that this was going to happen. We did hear about a board meeting, but we are disappointed with this outcome and we will be working with them to see how fast we can get them back into full operations,” Trotman said.