Dear Editor,
Foreign mining giants are flipping Guyana’s gold wealth into billions, while the State earns nothing from the transfers. In this hard-hitting editorial, we trace how Canada’s G Mining Ventures consolidated two mega gold projects worth over US$30 billion—and expose the government’s failure to impose even a basic transfer tax. Other nations have already closed this loophole. So why is Guyana still pretending
When Canadian miner G Mining Ventures (GMIN) announced its latest takeover of G2 Goldfields, it confirmed two things. First, Guyana’s nascent gold belt is positioning itself as a world-class mineral district. And second, once again, the biggest windfall from that promise will flow not to Guyana, but to Canadian investors.
The scale of the deal is staggering. With a US$2.2 billion buyout of G2, following a US$638 million merger with Reunion Gold Corp., GMIN now controls over 7 million ounces of Guyanese gold across a consolidated block in Region Seven. By the company’s own estimates, production could exceed 500,000 ounces annually, and at gold prices above US$4,500 per ounce, the resource could carry a market value exceeding US$30 billion.
Yet Guyana’s share of this multibillion-dollar corporate reshuffle? Zero.
These transactions between foreign companies are perfectly legal under Guyana’s outdated mining policy — but they reveal a catastrophic failure of national stewardship. Because the assets were transferred through corporate share sales abroad, no transfer tax, capital gains assessment, or relicensing fee was triggered in Guyana. What should be a taxable transfer of national property becomes a paper shuffle in Canadian stock markets, invisible to our tax system.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo’s dismissive claim that “flipping cannot be prevented” only compounds the insult. He knows this is not true. It’s not that flipping can’t be regulated — it’s that the government won’t regulate it. And as a result, every ounce of gold under those concessions is effectively mortgaged to foreign traders before a shovel even hits the ground.
Guyana’s refusal to modernize its mining legislation contrasts sharply with the reforms embraced by other developing-resource states.
These examples debunk the Vice President’s claim outright. It’s not a question of possibility or legality — it’s a question of political will. Other nations have done precisely what Guyana refuses to do: make the ownership of resources conditional on national consent and taxation.
The simplest reform lies in rewriting the very permits that underpin every mining operation. Each mineral right or prospecting license should carry a non-transferability clause: no sale, merger, or share restructuring that results in a change of control may occur without official authorization. That authorization would automatically trigger a transfer tax or reassessment, ensuring the State earns its share when the value of its subsoil wealth appreciates.
This is not anti-investor policy. It’s sound resource governance. Investors remain free to sell — but they must contribute to the public purse when they profit off public property. The logic mirrors Guyana’s oil regime where the government mandates signing bonuses and project-specific agreements before exploration rights change hands. There’s no reason mining should operate as a tax-free casino next door.
By refusing to act, Guyana is not just forgoing hypothetical revenue — it is conceding control over the strategic tempo of its own extractive future. Each corporate “flip” consolidates control of national assets in the hands of financial markets abroad. The gold in the ground remains physically ours, but economically, it has already been extracted — monetized through offshore valuation long before the first shipment leaves Bartica.
GMIN touts its savings from “synergies” — more than C$1 billion saved through shared infrastructure and combined operations. Yet the very concept of synergy here is a corporate euphemism for offshoring efficiency and onshoring nothing. To date, not a single cent of those “synergies” has translated into a measurable national benefit or added fiscal return.
Time for the State to Wake Up
No responsible government should allow its mining wealth to be flipped, merged, or carved up without a mechanism to capture value. The reforms required are neither complicated nor radical:
Guyana has entered an era where foreign investors view its subsoil not as ground to mine but as stock to trade. Until the State asserts its right to tax and regulate those movements, the country will stay locked in the role of spectator — watching billions change hands while pretending it cannot intervene.
The argument that “we can’t prevent flipping” has become a convenient mask for governmental indifference. But it is not laws that are lacking — it is leadership. If we continue to accept this passivity, the gold wealth of this nation will keep financing foreign balance sheets while Guyana inherits only the environmental clean-up and the illusion of progress.
It is time to stop pretending that foreign control is fate. With clear policy and courage, Guyana can ensure that every speculative trade in its gold carries a national dividend. Anything less is surrender disguised as investment.