Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/807573
34 www.resourceworld.com A P R I L / M A Y 2 0 1 7 about mining in that country. French Guiana is a relatively small country on the northeast coast of South America. Its poli- tics provide an interesting contrast with Argentina. French Guiana is an overseas department and region of France. Giustra said that French Guiana is remarkably underexplored as the French controlled all the ground there and did not start to privatize until the early 1990s – then the Bre-X scandal broke in 1997. He added, "You're really only looking at a couple of years in the 1990s and since 2003 to the present; that is the whole explora- tion history of the country." Giustra explained why French Guiana is highly prospective. "These are green- stone belts right on the Guiana shield with very prospective geology. It is identical to West Africa, because those continents were joined. When you compare the Guiana Shield to the Birimian Shield in West Africa, West Africa has about 100 more years of exploration history than the Guiana Shield. And you can see the result. There are dozens of world class mines in West Africa." However, like some other jurisdictions, French Guiana has problems with illegal miners. The government has tried to crack down on illegal mining activity by sending the military in to close down operations. But, Giustra says, these illegal miners, who come almost entirely from Brazil, can move around the terrain faster than the military because they are familiar with the terrain, coming from communities along rivers in the Amazon. Giustra says the best way to combat illegal mining is to have large scale min- ing projects move in. He said it is one of the reasons there is so much support for Montagne d'Or gold project by the gov- ernment and the people. The recent recovery in the mining markets, Giustra says, has resulted in increased exploration activity and interest in French Guiana. Giustra said Newmont Mining Corp. [NEM-NYSE] has done some deals there and rumours have it that there is another major in the country looking around. In addition, IAMGOLD [IMG-TSX; IAG-NYSE] has renewed some exploration projects. The present French government is gen- erally pro-business. But there is an election coming up. The favourites to win are even more pro-business, pro-jobs and pro-econ- omy. Giustra says there is a Donald Trump parallel going on in France right now, where politics are swinging more to the right. The regional government in French Guiana is pro-jobs, pro-mining and wel- comes foreign investment. Discussing what other countries in South America he would consider prospective with discovery potential, Giustra said, "It's actually more of a political question than a question of geology. The greenstone belts of the Guiana Shield go all the way from Venezuela to northern Brazil, the most pro- spective ground for gold exploration. Most countries in South America are prospective but in terms of mining friendly, Argentina is a huge opportunity right now." n