I have worked on both sides of local content.
At AGM Inc., I help answer the question regulators and the public ask of every large operation in Guyana: how much of your spending stays in the country? I have sat in the meetings where those numbers are prepared. I have filed the reports. And through structures connected to international groups such as Zijin Mining, I have watched how global companies measure what happens in their supply chains.
I have also seen how regulators read those numbers. They learn quickly to tell a real programme from a paper one.
The numbers matter. They create accountability. But they are the start of the conversation, not the end.
Here is the risk: Guyana’s mining sector — and the oil and gas sector rising beside it — could satisfy every local content target on paper and still leave the country no more capable than before. That would be a failure dressed up as compliance.
This article is about the difference.
A percentage is not a capability
A local content target is simple. It says a portion of spending must go to Guyanese companies. It can be met in a quarter. Contracts are awarded. Reports are filed. The percentage is recorded.
Capability cannot be met. It has to be built. And it is built in units that do not fit neatly into a procurement spreadsheet: a company that can manage payroll for eighty people. A workshop that can weld to a mine-site standard. A contractor whose safety training actually changes behaviour on site.
The contrast is easy to see. Tick-box procurement awards a contract because of where a company is registered. Capability-building awards a contract because of what a company can do — and then works to close the gap between what it can do today and what the contract requires tomorrow.
Both approaches spend the same money. They produce different countries.
What capability actually means
I have found it useful to think of capability in four parts.
Skills. People who can do the technical work — operate equipment, maintain machinery, manage finances, run kitchens, camps, and logistics at scale.
Systems. A supplier that relies on one person’s memory is a risk, not a partner. Capable companies have procedures, records, and a way to keep operating when a key person is absent.
Standards. The ability to work to a specification — a safety standard, a quality requirement, a delivery deadline — consistently, not occasionally. This is the hardest step. It requires a supplier to change how they work, not just what they deliver.
Business maturity. Realistic pricing, honest estimating, proper invoicing, cash-flow management, and the discipline to say no to work they cannot deliver.
A mining company cannot import these into a supplier. It can only create the conditions for them to develop.
What works — and what does not
I have seen both approaches up close.
The failing approach looks like this. A contract is awarded to meet a percentage. The supplier is given little information, slow payment, and no feedback. When problems arise, the operator steps in and does the work itself — or brings in an external company. The local supplier learns that winning the contract was the product, not the service. Both sides walk away disappointed. The percentage was met. Nobody’s capability grew.
The working approach is more demanding.
It starts with transparency. Clear qualification standards. Published procurement criteria. Honest explanations of why contracts were awarded — so local suppliers know what excellence looks like.
It includes structured development. Mentorship is real work, not occasional advice. A supplier learning to serve a mine site in Guyana’s interior needs to understand HSE requirements, site protocols, reporting obligations, and the pace of operations. Someone has to teach that deliberately.
It includes skills transfer. Guyanese technicians shadowing specialists on their own equipment. Manufacturer training that turns an operator into a maintainer. Certification tied to real competencies, not attendance.
And it includes payment discipline. In my experience, the single most damaging thing a large company can do to a local supplier is pay late. A mining company can survive a slow invoice. A supplier in Bartica or Linden cannot. On-time payment is not kindness. It is the working capital that lets a local business buy equipment, hire staff, and grow.
Capable suppliers reduce operational risk
There is a business case here, and it is not a soft one.
Mining in Guyana operates in the interior, hours from Georgetown by road, river, and air. Breakdowns are expensive. Lead times for imported parts are long. A supplier who understands the operation, who is close enough to respond quickly, and who has the systems and standards to work reliably is not a concession to policy. It is risk reduction.
Capable local suppliers mean shorter downtime, less inventory, faster response to failures, and fewer rework incidents. They also mean something quieter: an operator whose supply base can absorb shocks without the project stopping.
Investors understand this. As I argued in my article on the compliance gap, international capital reads operational maturity from signals — and how a company treats its local suppliers is one of the clearest signals there is. A supplier base that is being built is evidence of long-term intent. A supplier base that is being ticked off is the opposite.
The project ends. The capability should not
Every mine has a life cycle. Every construction boom has an end. But a welder in Linden who has learned to work to an international standard is employable for forty years. A logistics company that has learned to serve a mine site can serve agriculture, construction, or the oil and gas supply chain.
This is why local content matters beyond any single project. The percentage belongs to the project. The capability belongs to the country.
I wrote in an earlier article about developing Guyanese leaders within global organisations. This is the other side of the same coin. That article is about people rising inside companies; this one is about the businesses that surround them. Together they are the difference between an industry that passes through Guyana and an industry that builds it.
The same argument runs through everything I have written about ESG. Local content is the social dimension of responsible mining — the part where economic value is shared rather than extracted. And Guyana’s oil boom raises the stakes. As I explored in my article on what the boom means for compliance professionals, local content expectations now reach across the whole economy. The suppliers who build credibility in mining will be the ones trusted in energy.
A practical starting point
If you are responsible for local content in a mining operation, start small and start specific.
Choose one category of spending — camp services, logistics, fabrication, light maintenance. Identify two Guyanese suppliers with real potential. Give them a development plan: the standards they must meet, the training you will provide, the volume of work they can expect, and the timeline. Review progress quarterly. Pay them on time.
Measure capability, not just percentage. Ask not only what was spent locally, but what local companies can now do that they could not do two years ago.
If you measure percentages, you get percentages. If you measure capability, you get capability.
Guyana will not be judged on how many reports were filed. It will be judged on what the country can do when the projects are done. Build the capability, and the percentages will take care of themselves.