The mining and quarrying sector recorded a growth rate of 2.9 percent in 2018, reflecting a 5.2 percent increase above the previous forecast.
This was noted in the Finance Ministry’s End of Year Outcome Statement for 2018.
The Ministry said that the reversal in this sector was primarily due to higher gold declaration, which exceeded the previous projection by 7.9 percent. After lower than expected production for much of the second half of 2018, the Ministry said that Guyana Goldfields Inc. saw an increase in December 2018, with output rising to its highest level since August 2018.
The Ministry said that the industry also benefited from an uptick in declarations by small and medium-sized miners in the last two months of 2018, during which small miners accounted for 26.2 percent of 2018’s declarations by this class of miners.
It said that small miners benefited from rising gold prices and improved mining conditions, as a result of improved weather and repairs to hinterland roads. The Ministry said, too, that the significant growth in gold production was large enough to offset slightly slower growth in the bauxite and other mining industries, which fell by 1.6 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively, when compared with the forecast in Budget 2019.
However, both of these industries recorded robust growth relative to 2017, with bauxite rising by 24.6 percent and other mining by 45.9 percent, the statement by the Ministry noted.
