> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Guyana's Mines Commission Found No Licence Deviations at Three Scales. The Six Processes It Published Cover Two. - URL: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-ggmc-licence-award-review-six-processes-eiti-2026/ - Published: 2026-11-06T21:37:34.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-08T05:21:20.000Z - Description: Guyana's Geology and Mines Commission found no material deviations in how extractive licences were awarded in 2023 and 2024, at the small, medium and large scales. The six documented processes behind the mineral finding are all medium- and large-scale properties. - Author: Theon Alleyne - Tags: Guyana, Mining, Extractives, Compliance, EITI, Beat: extractives-sovereign-wealth, MSME: indirect **Quick summary:** The Guyana Geology and Mines Commission found no material deviations from the legal framework governing mineral and petroleum licence awards and transfers in 2023 and 2024, in a statement dated 6 October 2026\. It reached small, medium and large scales for minerals. The six documented processes behind it cover medium and large only. By LCN Business Desk A company applying for a mineral property in Guyana, and a lender financing one, now have the regulator's own account of how those licences were handed out in 2023 and 2024. The Guyana Geology and Mines Commission published a statement on 6 October 2026 under the title [GGMC Statement on Material Deviations from the Legal and Regulatory Framework for the Award and Transfer of Extractive Licences](https://www.ggmc.gov.gy/ggmc-statement-on-material-deviations-from-the-legal-and-regulatory-framework-for-the-award-and-transfer-of-extractive-licences/?ref=lacaribenanews.com). It says the Commission identified no material deviations from the framework governing the award and transfer of mineral licences at small, medium and large scales, and none for petroleum licences either. The evidence the mineral finding rests on is six documented application and transfer processes, and all six are medium- and large-scale mineral properties. ## What did the Commission find? No material deviations, across both sectors it licenses, for two reporting years. The statement covers the 2023 and 2024 reporting periods. For minerals it reports no material deviations from the legal and regulatory framework governing award and transfer, at all three scales. For petroleum it reports no material deviations from the applicable framework, assessed against what it calls applicable petroleum legislation, regulations and administrative requirements. The petroleum conclusion is stated in a single sentence, and the Commission publishes no sample size for it. ## What does the finding rest on? Six documented processes, all of them medium- and large-scale mineral properties. | | The finding covers it | In the documented sample | | -------------------- | --------------------- | ------------------------ | | Small-scale mineral | Yes | None published | | Medium-scale mineral | Yes | Within the six | | Large-scale mineral | Yes | Within the six | | Petroleum | Yes | No number published | *The Guyana Geology and Mines Commission's statement of 6 October 2026\. The rows are the scales the statement itself names.* In every row, the clearance reaches further than the published evidence does. The six processes were measured against what the Commission describes as applicable legislation, regulations, documented procedures and supporting records, and the statement names no Act and no regulation. ## Which standard is the statement answering? The wording is the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative's, almost to the letter. Requirement 2.2 of the [2023 EITI Standard](https://eiti.org/eiti-requirements?ref=lacaribenanews.com), dated 12 June 2023, asks an implementing country to disclose *"Any material deviations from the applicable legal and regulatory framework governing license transfers and awards"*. The Commission's title reproduces that clause, and its finding applies that test. The requirement's stated objective is a public overview of awards and transfers, the statutory procedures for them, and whether those procedures are followed in practice. The Commission's statement does not mention the initiative anywhere in its text. ## Does that requirement reach the smallest operators? It says so expressly. Requirement 2.2(a) applies *"including for companies whose payments fall below the agreed materiality threshold"*. The same requirement asks for *"an explanation of the methodology adopted for the assessment"* alongside the verdict on deviations. The documented sample is six medium- and large-scale mineral processes, and the statement sets out no methodology beyond the categories of record consulted. ::: **The clearance covers small-scale mineral licensing. The published sample does not contain a small-scale process.** ::: ## Why is petroleum handled separately? Because it sits outside the quality system the mineral review runs through. The Commission describes its quality management system as ISO 9001-certified, and says it was audited and recertified to ISO 9001 in 2023\. It then states that petroleum licences are outside the scope of those certified processes, which is why the petroleum review was conducted separately. So the two findings in one statement are not produced the same way. One runs through a certified process with six documented cases behind it. The other is a separate exercise with no published case count. ## Why does the timing matter to a licence holder? Guyana's second validation against the standard is already running. The EITI Board set that validation to commence on 15 May 2026, after deferring it from 1 October 2025 and then from 1 January 2026, and the International Secretariat is assessing progress from April 2022 onward. Guyana's 2022 validation scored fairly low overall, and the Board warned at the time that failure to show progress could lead to temporary suspension. The country was suspended in February 2023 over a late report and the suspension was lifted in June 2024\. In June 2026 Guyana took a seat on the initiative's international board for 2026 to 2029. No validation outcome has been published. What a licence applicant can read today is the Commission's own account of the two years under review. ## How does this sit beside Guyana's other extractive oversight? Two of the gaps it leaves have been reported before, in the bodies around it rather than in the Commission. The initiative's own governance in Guyana was in question three weeks before this statement, when [the Minister of Natural Resources defended the appointment of a civil-society convener on the ground that his mining holdings were dormant](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/gyeiti-civil-society-convener-mining-permit-renewal-dormancy-2026/). The terms inside mineral licences have their own history: [five Guyanese mineral agreements carry the same clause, word for word, restoring a company's position if a new law increases what it must pay](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-mineral-agreement-stability-clause-local-content-mining-2026/). And the capacity to audit the sector is thin by the Auditor General's own account, since [the Audit Office of Guyana has no dedicated oil and gas unit and is resubmitting a proposal to create one](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/audit-office-guyana-oil-gas-division-real-time-auditing-2026/). ## What does the statement not establish? Three things, each of them named in the requirement it answers. It does not set out the methodology by which the six processes were chosen, or whether they are a sample or the whole population of medium- and large-scale activity in those years. It does not identify the legislation and regulations the processes were measured against. And it publishes no equivalent of the six for petroleum, so the petroleum finding carries no stated evidentiary base. For a firm preparing a licence application, the usable content is narrow and real: the regulator has put on record that it reviewed award and transfer processes for 2023 and 2024 and found nothing material against them, and it has shown six cases. ### The entities \- **Guyana Geology and Mines Commission** is the Guyanese regulator that awards and transfers mineral and petroleum licences, and the author of the statement examined here. - **Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative** is the global standard on extractive-sector disclosure whose Requirement 2.2 covers licence awards and transfers. - **Requirement 2.2** is the clause of the 2023 EITI Standard asking for disclosure of material deviations from the legal and regulatory framework governing licence awards and transfers, with the methodology used. - **Material deviations** is the standard's term for departures from the applicable legal and regulatory framework in how a licence was awarded or transferred. - **ISO 9001** is the international quality-management standard to which the Commission says its processes are certified and were recertified in 2023\. - **Audit Office of Guyana** is the state audit body which has reported having no dedicated oil and gas unit. ### What the title card says \- Headline: Guyana's Mines Commission found no licence deviations at three scales, and the six processes it published cover two. - Date of the Commission's statement: 6 October 2026\. - Reporting periods reviewed: 2023 and 2024\. - Documented application and transfer processes published: six. - Scales those six processes cover: medium and large mineral properties only. - Scales the mineral finding covers: small, medium and large. - Sample size published for the petroleum review: none. - Acts or regulations named in the statement: none. - The standard the wording follows: Requirement 2.2 of the 2023 EITI Standard, dated 12 June 2023\. - Date Guyana's second validation commenced: 15 May 2026\. - Period the International Secretariat is assessing: from April 2022 onward. ## Frequently Asked Questions What did the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission find about licence awards? In a statement dated 6 October 2026 it reported no material deviations from the legal and regulatory framework governing the award and transfer of mineral licences at small, medium and large scales during the 2023 and 2024 reporting periods, and no material deviations for petroleum licences. How many processes did the review examine? Six documented application and transfer processes, all covering medium- and large-scale mineral properties. No small-scale process appears in the published sample, and the Commission publishes no sample size for the petroleum part of the review. Why is the Commission reporting on deviations at all? The title and finding reproduce Requirement 2.2 of the 2023 EITI Standard, which asks implementing countries to disclose any material deviations from the framework governing licence awards and transfers, together with the methodology used. The statement itself does not mention the initiative. Does the standard cover small operators? Yes. Requirement 2.2(a) applies including for companies whose payments fall below the agreed materiality threshold, and its objective extends to whether the statutory procedures are followed in practice. What is the position of Guyana's EITI validation? The second validation commenced on 15 May 2026 and assesses progress from April 2022 onward. The 2022 validation scored fairly low overall and the Board warned that failure to show progress could lead to temporary suspension. Guyana was suspended in February 2023 over a late report and reinstated in June 2024\. No outcome of the current validation has been published.