Paul Isnard

Paul Isnard is a town in French Guiana, it is part of the municipality of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni.

Mining concession

In Paul Isnard it is a mining concession (named after an old gold miner).

Two sites were exploited: Citron & Paul Isnard. The former name of the company was CMPI until 1987. During the penitentiary era many former prisoners had to serve the same amount of time as free men than their original sentence (called "doublage" double up in French) but were forbidden to leave French Guiana. Many of them went to the rain forest to find gold. They used a lot of mercury and worked manually.

At the end of 19th century Paul Isnard & other share holder brought a huge steam engined system in spare part on horse and men back. This machine is still here in the jungle between Citron & Paul Isnard former air strip.

Now you find more mercury when washing the ores than you need to make "amalgam" (mix of gold & mercury), sign of intense activity in the past when you could find gold just a few feet below. Now there are only few grams per metric ton, but everywhere; old timer use to say than God powdered French Guiana with gold like you add salt on your T bone steak.

Citron is located at the bottom of the "Lucifer plateau" which is a huge reserve of high grade bauxite; it is not yet mined due to the high cost of labor (higher than in continental France). Neighboring Surinam (then Dutch Guiana) with his low salary expenses is mining bauxite since ages and was one of the main suppliers of USA during WW II.

External links

• Template:Fr icon B.R.G.M. (Bureau de Recherches Geologiques & Minieres)