The Guyana Women Miners’ Organization (GWMO) believes that the Closed Areas Committee is biased in the allocation of mining lands, limiting opportunities for small and medium scale miners.This opinion was expressed on Friday last by Simona Broomes, President of the GWMO, at the body’s second anniversary celebration.Broomes related that years ago miners could have identified available lands for mining on a map. But now a majority of the land is identified as closed areas, preventing miners from applying for the areas.Emphasizing what members of the GWMO find unfair, she said that oftentimes the same blocks that are marked as closed areas are awarded to some miners. The explanation behind that is that the miner,Cheap NFL Jerseys, perhaps practicing mercury free mining, applied for the blocks. The application is considered by the Closed Areas Committee, who forwards the recommendations to the Minister for the final say.Broomes stressed that for the longest while there are hardly any open areas, leaving the allocation of mining lands totally to the Closed Areas Committee.According to an Officer of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), in 2007 the Prime Minister signed a document bringing the Closed Areas Committee into being. Every year the committee is expected to be regulated so as to direct its functioning.But,Cheap Jerseys China, according to the Officer, this has not been the case. The committee is unregulated. While there are some areas that are opened, the majority of the lands are closed,China Jerseys Cheap, the officer said.According to Robert Persaud, Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, “Closed areas are areas that have been returned to the GGMC. And that’s why it is called closed area, so it is not majority and minority.”He said that for a number of reasons,Wholesale Jerseys China, these areas cannot be accessed automatically, but have to go through a special process. The Closed Areas Committee was setup in the early 1990s and was given the specific mandate of making lands available.Persaud explained, “These closed areas, take for example if you have given up a PL (prospecting License) or area, it comes automatically back to the State and is considered closed area. And these are intended to be done through an open, transparent way… and two ways it has been done in the past is through auction and lottery,wholesale nfl jerseys, and then also to support mercury-free mining too,Cheap Jerseys USA, whereby the areas that have been given, those also fall under the remit.”According to the Minister, there is no committee at this juncture and one has to be appointed. “We are going through the formalities. It expired at the end of last year. And as we are going through with other boards and committees these are being reconstituted as we speak. In the meantime, no consideration is being done.”He stressed that the Minister does not allocate mining land of any sort. The powers of the Minister are prescribed in the Act in terms of recommendation and no-objection. (Keeran Danny)