Indigenous Indians block Russian bauxite operations for higher pay

Indigenous Amerindians in south-eastern Guyana have virtually halted the operations of the Russian Aluminium Company to press demands for more money to be paid to them for use of a roadway and the excavation of a new area.

Councillors of Hururu, an Amerindian mission in Upper Berbice River, and government officials were locked in talks in the hope of finding a solution. The delegation includes representatives from the Ministries of Amerindian Affairs, and Natural Resources and the Environment, Guyana Geology and Mines Commission and the Guyana Forestry Commission.

The estimated 500 residents have blocked the road and river preventing trucks and boats from moving bauxite from Aroaima for the past three days. Wire rope and boats have been tied across the waterway, making it impossible for vessels to traverse.

Demerara Waves Online News was told that the logging-dependent community is vehemently opposed to what they have claimed was RUSAL’s order to remove from Kurubuka, a bauxite-rich area that government has signed over.

Deputy Toshao (Village Chief), Victor Walker complained bitterly that the GUY $163,000 that RUSAL wants to offer to mine the new area, where logging is done, was woefully inadequate. Instead, villages want GUY$12 million monthly.

Currently, RUSAL pays GUY$2.3 million monthly for use of a roadway and an existing mines site. Of that amount, he said the company takes back more than GUY$1 million in electricity charges. “These people see us here as Amerindian people and they just want to do as they feel, give us charges because we haven’t got the experience of what is kilowatt and how the meter reads,” said Walker.