A $1.53 billion aggregate mining project capable of producing up to 360,000 tonnes of stone annually has been proposed for the Arisaru Mountain Area in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice), with Laurentian Mountain Resources (Guyana) Inc seeking to develop a large-scale quarry operation to meet the country’s rapidly growing demand for construction materials. The proposed Arisaru North Quarry Project will entail the extraction of stone from Medium Scale Mining Permit S-194/MP/003 in the Potaro Mining District and is expected to operate for a 10-year period. Although the quarry is designed with a production capacity of 360,000 tonnes per year, the project is expected to average 300,000 tonnes annually, resulting in total production of approximately three million tonnes over the life of the project. The quarry will supply boulders, gabions, and crushed aggregates in various sizes to the local Guyanese market.

Located approximately 60 kilometres (km) south of Linden along the Linden-Mabura Road and a further five km via a dirt road, the project occupies a 1200-acre medium-scale mining permit covering significant gabbro resources within the Barama-Mazaruni Supergroup of the Trans-Amazonian Tectono-Thermal Province of the Guiana Shield, part of the Amazonian Craton. According to project documents, Laurentian Mountain Resources plans to invest approximately US$7.32 million (GY$1.53 billion) over the 10-year period. The largest portion of that investment, some US$4.636 million (GY$971.9 million), will be allocated toward mining equipment. An additional US$820,000 is budgeted for infrastructure, US$135,000 for power and electrical systems, and US$120,000 for water management. The company noted that the planned production represents only a small fraction of the available resources on the land expanse.

“The total 10-year production corresponds to only 2.3 per cent of the calculated total resources, and the only mapped outcropping massive gabbro resources exceed the planned 10-year operating quarry total production,” the project document states.