With an allotment of 109 properties, Baishanlin Director Chu Hongbo is the third largest holder of medium-scale mining permits in Guyana, according to a recent report that reviewed operations at the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) and described the allocations as “scandalous.”

The report also highlighted Baishanlin’s 72 mining claims, since the claim system was intended exclusively for Guyanese and it was never the intention of the Mining Act to allow non-Guyanese persons and corporations to operate in the small-scale or medium-scale mining systems. At the end of 2013, the list of claims in existence on the GGMC website showed 72 claims held by Baishanlin– a Chinese logging company–though they are shown as abandoned on a March 31, 2014 list.

However, in the current claims list, there are new claims registered to Baishanlin, according to the inception report of a Management and Systems Review of various divisions in the GGMC that was compiled earlier this year. The report, which was obtained by Stabroek News, was authored by Dr Grantley Walrond, L. Heesterman and J. Goolsarran.

“How Baishanlin, a Chinese corporation with non-Guyanese owning the beneficial interest in the company, qualified to so operate, is indeed a mystery. This goes to the heart of a non-appreciation of the intent and fact of the law and is indeed worrying,” the report states.

The report also identified Hongbo as being the holder of 109 medium-scale mining permits. This would place Hongbo as one of the largest holders of such permits. According to the list of medium-scale mining permits holders in the report, only Ramnarine (only name) and Michael Vieira, with 193 and 122 permits, respectively, hold more medium-scale mining permits than Hongbo. Local miner Afro Alphonso holds 107 medium-scale mining permits, according to the report.