Cuyuni-Mazaruni

Cuyuni-Mazaruni (Region 7) represents Guyana's interior extraction economy—gold and diamond mining that predated the oil boom now transforming the country. While offshore oil production drove 43.6% GDP growth in 2024, the interior mining regions like Cuyuni-Mazaruni maintain the older extraction patterns that defined Guyana before ExxonMobil arrived.

The region's mining economy operates largely through artisanal and small-scale operations, creating environmental pressures (mercury contamination, deforestation) that contrast with the regulated offshore oil sector. When Guyana's Natural Resource Fund accumulated $2.57 billion in oil revenue in 2024, that wealth flowed through Georgetown rather than the interior mining communities that extract gold the hard way.

Cuyuni-Mazaruni faces the paradox of resource economies: abundant minerals, limited development. The region lacks the infrastructure, health services, and education that oil revenue could provide—if channeled inland. The $260 million Demerara Harbor Bridge and Wales industrial zone investments concentrate near the coast. Whether the interior mining regions benefit from oil wealth depends on policy choices not yet made. For now, Cuyuni-Mazaruni continues extracting gold while the oil economy transforms everything around it.