The National Action Plan (NAP) for Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining for the Co-operative Republic of Guyana was developed with funding support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), implementation arrangements by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and co- execution by the Ministry of Natural Resources of Guyana and the Basel Convention Regional Centre for Training and Technology Transfer for the Caribbean (BCRC-Caribbean).
The project signals the commitment of these agencies and the Government of Guyana towards the global and regional implementation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury as well as positively impacting the lives and livelihoods of artisanal and small-scale miners and mining communities in Guyana.
The ASGM sector has been an essential industry for over 100 years and is the largest employer in the hinterland region. In 2016, the Government of Guyana completed the Minamata Initial Assessment (MIA), which estimated that mercury emissions into air and releases into water and land from gold mining activities correspond to 94% of total annual emissions and releases nationally or 27,134 kg of mercury per year.
The NAP focuses on key areas to reduce mercury use in the SMS gold mining sector, eliminate worst practices and increase management of environmental impacts through technical assistance to miners, build institutional capacity to strengthen monitoring and enforcement, improve processing techniques and adopt appropriate mercury-free techniques and technologies where practicable. It also includes the formalization and regulation of the artisanal mining aspect of ASGM; facilitation small- and medium-scale miners' access to finance to support their transition to mercury-free gold mining; management of mercury trade; public health, especially vulnerable groups; and awareness raising.