SURINAMESE COMPANY IN US$7.5M CRUSHED STONE DEAL FOR CJIA EXPANSION
Foto|The barge Mariner’s 1 Kingstown is being loaded in Paramaribo on Tuesday for the first shipment of crushed stone for the Cheddi Jagan International Airport expansion project in Guyana.
PARAMARIBO, Suriname- Suriname’s state-owned mining company, Grassalco, recently secured a multi-million-dollar deal to supply crushed stone for the US$150M expansion of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport in Guyana.
Grassalco and Zhong Da International Engineering Company will deliver the material in partnership to the client, China Harbour Engineering Company, in Guyana.
The contracts were signed by Grassalco’s Chief Executive Officer, Sergio Akiemboto, Wu Qiong, general-manager of Zhong Da International Engineering Company and Sun Wei, project-manager of China Harbour Engineering Company.
Zhong Da has been engaged with the Government of Guyana to build turn-key homes in Providence, East Bank Demerara.
According to Akiemboto the lucrative US$ 7.5 million deal comes on the heel of Grassalco’s 45th anniversary on August 30, 2016. He noted that the 300,000-ton crushed stone is being exported over a period of 12 months. The signing was preceded by an intensive process of negotiations which started in December 2015.
The first shipment of about 4,000 ton is expected to take place this Tuesday. Grassalco’s CEO Akiemboto further noted that this deal will pave the way for the mining-company to secure more contracts in the region, and Grassalco will eventually play a major role in the economic development in the Caribbean as a supplier of crushed stone.
So far the Guyana-deal is the largest contract the state-owned company has signed with a foreign contractor.
However, this is not the first regional contract for Grassalco. Several months earlier the company supplied boulders to Barbados for the construction of a sea wall in the Sandals Hotel construction project.
While Grassalco is the largest supplier of crushed stone in Suriname, the company also produces other building materials such as different types of sand and shells. In November 2014 the company also started a gold production plant where gold is being produced in a sustainable manner without the use of mercury.
Meanwhile, Grassalco also owns exploration concessions for gold and other natural resources and minerals in Suriname.
