{"id":1124640,"date":"2019-07-03T21:12:05","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T21:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=995636"},"modified":"2019-07-03T21:12:05","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T21:12:05","slug":"guyana-goldfields-stops-work-at-controversial-aurora-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1124640","title":{"rendered":"Guyana Goldfields stops work at controversial Aurora Mine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Guyana Goldfields (TSX:&nbsp;GUY) stock dropped almost 8% on Wednesday, after it announced a wildcat work stoppage happened Tuesday at&nbsp;its 100%-owned&nbsp;Aurora mine in&nbsp;Guyana, South America.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>A portion of the workforce employed by the company&#8217;s wholly owned subsidiary, AGM Inc. blocked delivery of ore to the mill. &nbsp;Aurora is the company\u2019s only gold mine in operation.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n<blockquote>\n<p> The mid-tier gold producer has been under pressure due to the performance of its flagship and only operating mine following a&nbsp;resources review <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Guyana <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/guyana-goldfields-starts-underground-development-aurora\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"started underground development (opens in a new tab)\">started underground development<\/a> in November 2018 at&nbsp;Aurora in northwestern Guyana, in a territory in dispute with&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/mining.com\/maduro-blasts-new-us-sanctions-venezuelan-gold\/\" >Venezuela<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This&nbsp;labour&nbsp;dispute is only the latest of the company\u2019s management&nbsp;troubles.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The mid-tier gold producer has been under pressure due to the performance of its flagship and only operating mine following a&nbsp;resources review.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In March, the company shocked the market <a href=\"https:\/\/www.guygold.com\/News\/News-Details\/2019\/Guyana-Goldfields-Inc-Reports-Financial-Results-Sets-2019-Production-and-Cost-Guidance\/default.aspx\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"by announcing (opens in a new tab)\">by announcing<\/a> that the amount of gold in proven and probable reserves at Aurora&nbsp;had declined by almost 1.7 million ounces, compared to estimates a year ago.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p> &#8220;The past&nbsp;year saw&nbsp;the Company deal with&nbsp;a number of challenges resulting from our lower than forecast planned mining rates and grades at Aurora. In response, the Company has acted on a number of fronts, starting with a refreshed Board of Directors, including the appointment of a new, non-executive Chairman, and a strengthened management team,&#8221;  Scott Caldwell, President &amp; CEO stated at the time. <\/p>\n<p>The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.guygold.com\/News\/News-Details\/2019\/C-O-R-R-E-C-T-I-O-N-from-Source----Guyana-Goldfields-Inc\/default.aspx\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">company attributed<\/a>&nbsp;the unexpected \u201cevaporation\u201d of gold reserves to the adoption of \u201ca new and more appropriate mine model,\u201d which eliminated a previous \u201cineffective dual reporting\u201d structure.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A bitter battle for control&nbsp;of between&nbsp;the miner and dissent shareholders led by founder and ousted chairman, Patrick Sheridan, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/guyana-goldfields-ceo-go-miner-settles-proxy-fight-founder\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"was&nbsp;settled in April, (opens in a new tab)\">was&nbsp;settled in April,<\/a> costing the company\u2019s head his job.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Guyana said on Wednesday that as&nbsp;a safety precaution,&nbsp;it has&nbsp;temporarily suspended&nbsp;operations until a resolution is reached and is in the process of evacuating all non-essential personnel from site, including the striking workers, the company&nbsp;said in a press release.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe company believes the stoppage was the result of a misunderstanding concerning the management and relationship between AGM and certain open pit mining contractors,\u201d the press release reads.&nbsp;AGM has been examining options to improve mining performance in order to ensure Aurora&#8217;s long-term future.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The miner said it is working with its employees and&nbsp;is making arrangements to have the strikers meet with representatives of the Ministry of&nbsp;Labour&nbsp;to mediate the dispute.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Work on the underground exploration decline remains unaffected, it said.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This labour dispute is only the latest of the company&rsquo;s management troubles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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