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2nd Suriname International Mining, Energy & Petroleum Conference & Exhibition With a total of +230 registered participants!

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Mining & Petroleum Facts

Suriname’s extractive industries: diverse, unexploited and full of potential

  • Extractive industries account directly for around 30% of GDP and as much as 90% of exports. Due rising commodity prices of its mineral and oil exports, Suriname’s economy grew at an average of 4% year from 2000 to 2012 with per capita income reaching US$9,350 in 2014. Due to the fall of global commodity prices, the economy entered a recession and per capita income fell to US$6,990 in 2016. The economy is estimated to have improved in 2017 and 2018, due to the operation of a new gold mine.
  • Suriname has a long history of working with multi nationals in the extraction business. The metalorganic map of Suriname shows various occurrences of minerals of major economic importance is the greenstone belt for primary gold and other deposits. The main metal bearing pegmatite bodies are found in north-east Suriname. Cassiterite, columbite-tantalite, beryl and amblygonite have been mined.
  • Other base metal occurrences exist such as: Fe, Al, Au, Cu, Fe, Mn, Cr and other minerals.

The Guyana Shield offers unmatched mineral and petroleum potential

  • Suriname has huge potential to increase its extractive industries revenues. The country is located on the Guiana Shield which has significant mineral and petroleum resources.
  • The Guiana Shield is a cratonic block that was originally joined to the West African craton and shares the same Proterozoic greenstone belt geology and discovery potential. It has only seen 30 years of industrial-scale mining. It is underexplored compared to its geological counterpart in West Africa, with a gold endowment of only one-third of that of West Africa, estimated at 10,000 tons of gold
  • Offshore Suriname is part of the Guiana shield running from eastern Venezuela across Guyana and Suriname and into French Guyana. The US Geological Survey estimates the region could contain 13.6bn bl of oil, 21.2 Tcf of gas, and 574mn bl of NGLs.
  • Bauxite production and exports fuelled the mining sector for the past century, however operations ended in 2015 due to low market prices and depleted reserves.

Suriname: untapped potential for a golden future

  • Gold was initially discovered in Suriname in 1879 and Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) has been practiced for centuries in the country. It is key for employment for many people in the country. It is estimated that, 16.9 tonnes of ASM gold was officially exported in 2009, representing approximately 60 per cent of Suriname’s total gold exports. It thought that there are 60,000 artisanal miners currently.
  • Industrial gold production in Suriname consists of the Rosebel ( operational since 2004) and Merian gold mines (operational since 2016)
  • In 2018, the Rosebel mine’s production was extended to 2033 with an increase in proven and probable reserves to 5.5 million ounces from the Saramacca gold field (the reported overall inferred mineral resources are higher at 10.3 million ounces.
  • Proven and probable reserves in Merian gold mine were 5.3 million ounces (2017) with an average production of 0.5 million ounces per year ( a mine life of over a decade), the production horizon would be slightly more than 10 years
  • Recent exploration work indicates that the greenstone belt extends much further to the West than previously expected.
  • Suriname’s gold production was 3 tonnes in 2019

Suriname at the fulcrum of the one of the world’s largest undiscovered hydrocarbon plays.

  • Suriname currently produces around 16,300 b/d from the onshore Tambaredjo and Calcutta fields operated by Staatsolie
  • Focus on exploration and potential drilling in Suriname has shifted towards the Cretaceous-Tertiary petroleum system due to the huge Liza discovery in Guyana. The giant oil discovery has proved the potential for significant discoveries in the Guyana-Suriname basin.
  • The Maka Central-1 block located adjacent to the maritime border with Guyana, proves the extension of the Guyana Cretaceous oil play into Suriname waters, with a potential 300 million barrels of gross recoverable oil
  • The majority of Suriname’s near offshore acreage is under licence, and now attention is turning to the unlicensed ultra-deep-water blocks.
  • It is high likely that with a new government democratically elected that operators would ramp up their drilling operations in the near future.

Suriname’s will develop its power generating capacity to satisfy industrial and domestic demand

  • Almost 50% of electricity generation comes for from renewable energy (hydro), the remainder from diesel or Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO). Suriname has two large-scale generation centralized systems (EPAR serving Paramaribo and ENIC serving Nickerie) and several isolated systems not connected to the grid. Total grid-based electricity consumption reached 1,251.2 GWh in 2017
  • Suriname generates a large amount of its power requirements from the hydro dam at Afobaka (Brokopondo) built in the 1960’s. The dam has about 189MW of installed capacity. The Hydro power is complemented by thermoelectric generators which run on bunker fuel (heavy fuel) which is produced onshore by Staatsolie.
  • EBS is reportedly looking to install additional capacity The DPP2 power station in Paramaribo will be expanded from 84 MW to 126 MW with the addition of two 21 MW Generator sets.
  • From 2011 to 2016, Suriname spent some SRD 3.4 billion (USD 880 million) on electricity subsidies, this represents 3.3 percent of the 2011 to 2016 GDP. Starting in 2020, a more cost-reflective tariff structure will be introduced that promotes energy efficiency and reduces GHG emissions
  • The Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) has extended a Line of Credit [LOC] of USD 35.80 million, to the Government of Republic of Suriname to finance ‘Rural Electrification through Solar DG Hybrid PV systems in 50 remote villages.