The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in the process of reviewing an application by EKAA Earth Resources Management (EERM) to develop a multimillion dollar stone aggregate project located at Atlana, Batavia, in the Cuyuni Mining district. Readers would recall that an agreement to facilitate this project was signed in January 2023 between company officials and the Village Council of the Batavia Amerindian Reservation since the operations would be within their area. It is expected to employ some 40 indigenous residents once operations are up and running.
Project details note that property covers several unnamed tributaries of the Cuyuni River. The area under tenure totals 1,098 acres/ 4.4 sq kilometers.
Exploration of the Atlana Project started last year September and saw the drilling of 10 vertical holes to test the prospectivity of the area. Guyana Standard understands that drilling encountered a dioritic unit and saprolite as the overburden, confirming the presence of aggregate material within the project area. The samples were delivered to a testing laboratory where standard ASTM aggregate quality tests were carried out.
A model for the EERM aggregate deposit was subsequently created using Leapfrog 3D software. Based on the interpreted data from the drilling done, it indicated that the EERM Atlana Quarry permit currently has a quarriable resource of 152.7 million tons of diorite with the mining pit (PIT) proposed for phase one and an indicated resource of 13.7 million tons of diorite with an estimated investment cost of USD$5,379,700 (GY$1,129,737,000) to bring the quarry into operation. It is expected to have a production rate of 575,000 tons per year at USD$19.00 per ton. Once all goes according to planned, the company is hoping to make a $27.3B over a five year period.
The production of stone aggregates from the EERM Atlana Quarry project will be mainly for the Guyana market. Specifically, the investors hope to have these aggregates sold to the construction industry, targeting the building of road infrastructure in Bartica, Georgetown, West coast and Regions 3, 4 & 5 including housing construction and cement production.
The estimated mine life based on the proposed exploitable resource for the proposed pit is 23+ years.
It is expected that the quarrying operation will commence before the end of the third quarter of 2023 with an average yearly production of 550,000 tons aggregates and 25,000 tons rip-rap.
