GUAYANA DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
EXAMPLE AND VALIDITY OF PLANNING FOR DEVELOPMENT
ELECTRIFICATION OF THE CARONÍ RIVER
GUAYANA BUILDING VISIONARIES:
«Long-Term planning is not concerned with future decisions but with the future with current decisions» Peter Drucker
In 1953, the Venezuelan State created the Study Commission for the Electrification of the Caroní River (CEEC), attached first to the Ministry of Development, and chaired by General and Engineer Rafael Alfonzo Ravard, then to the Venezuelan Development Corporation, and later in 1960 to the Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana, CVG. In 1963, the company CVG Electrificación del Caroní, C.A., EDELCA, was officially established.
The following are the areas that were addressed by the Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana in this Long-Term Strategic Planning process for the development of the country, in the Guayana region, which, with the approval of the National Executive, had a close relationship based on a complementary vision with other regions of the country seen as a whole:
- Electrification of the Caroni River
- Interconnection with the rest of the country through high voltage lines
- Forest and mineral resources: iron, bauxite, gold, diamonds, and other minerals
- The CVG, with the creation of this development pole in the region, helps to mitigate somewhat the lack of planning in the distribution of the population, historically excessively concentrated in the strip that includes the Andes Mountain range, the state of Zulia, the coastal area from Falcón state to Sucre state, offering a harmonic habitat. It helped in this sense from the point of view of the deconcentration of the overpopulated areas that already existed, decentralization, and over time, to assimilate part of the population growth, taking advantage of the benefits and potential of the region. Ciudad Guayana went from having 4,000 inhabitants in 1951 to 700,000 thousand or more in the year 2,000
- Agroforestry and agricultural development with the bringing of buffalo for the first time to Venezuela
https://juanguzman88.blogspot.com/2020/09/visionaries-of-guayana-water-buffalo-in.html
- The beginning of the tests until the planting of the largest forest in the world planted by man, with around 600,000 hectares in Caribbean Pine forest plantations in Uverito, between the states of Anzoátegui and Monagas, for the production and marketing of boards wood for furniture and interior architecture as well as for house construction
- Pellet plant, pre-reduced iron ore plants (briquettes)
- Construction and installation of the steel complex and aluminium industries
- Production of lime, necessary for the iron and steel industry, alumina, gold, for agriculture and water purification
- Promotion and development of the small and medium-sized industry to cover the sectors: metalworking, maintenance, services
- Construction of the City of Puerto Ordaz with its zoning, public services, hospitals, schools, Universities: UDO, UNEG, UNEXPO, urban and extra-urban communication routes. Construction of the Angosturita bridge at the mouth of the Caroní River with built-in railway
City of Puerto Ordaz
- Promotion of industrial development in the region both in the public and private sectors
- Ideas embodied for future projects such as the Orinoco-Apure Hub and the Orinoco-Amazonas River interconnection
Fortunately, that Long-Term Strategic Planning in the southern region of the country was so visionary that today, in 2023, all Venezuelans depend on an extraordinary platform that was conceived in 1953. Almost 70 years have passed, and it will continue for a few more decades. Hence, for the reconstruction of the country for the support of future generations, we are obliged to conceive and execute the 2022-2080 National Plan, at least at the level of the legacy left by our great Visionary Builders of Guayana.
VISIONARY BUILDERS OF GUAYANA
RAFAEL ALFONZO RAVARD LEOPOLDO SUCRE FIGARELLA
VISIONARY BUILDERS OF GUAYANA
RAFAEL ALFONZO RAVARD
In 1961 and under his presidency, the CVG signed an agreement with the Joint Center for Urban Studies of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University for technical assistance in the development and planning of a new and avant-garde urban nucleus, Puerto Ordaz.
Upon completion of the study and planning phase for the use of the Caroní River, the first hydroelectric plant in the country was built: Macagua I, intended to supply energy for the future industrial development of Venezuela.
In turn, the installation and construction of the iron and steel complex advanced, since for the reduction of iron ore, energy supply from the hydroelectric plant was a requirement.
Between 1965 and 1974, Alfonzo Ravard simultaneously held the presidency of EDELCA and the vice-presidency of Aluminio del Caroní, Alcasa. In 1973 he also assumes the presidency of Venalum, all companies attached to the CVG.
In 1963, the Guri hydroelectric project was launched, at the time, with the largest capacity in the world and one of the most colossal engineering works carried out in the history of Venezuela.
Alfonzo Ravard traces new horizons with agricultural development projects to provide agro-industrial products to the area; In 1969 he carried out the afforestation project in Uverito, in the south of Monagas state, where 26 million Caribbean pine trees were successfully planted.
LEOPOLDO SUCRE FIGARELLA
In 1962 Leopoldo Sucre Figarella was appointed Minister of Public Works during the government of Rómulo Betancourt, a term that lasted seven years, since President Raúl Leoni decided to keep him in office.
At the head of this ministry, several of the most important infrastructure works in 20th century Venezuela were built, such as Boyacá Avenue, La Araña Distributor and the second stage of Libertador Avenue, in Caracas; the «Rafael Urdaneta» bridge over Maracaibo Lake, «Angostura» over the Orinoco River and «José Antonio Páez» over the Arauca River; the Tejerías-Valencia, Valencia-Puerto Cabello, and Ciudad Bolívar-Puerto Ordaz-Upata highways, the expansion of the Simón Bolívar International Airport and the startup of the second stage of the Guri dam.
In 1984 he is appointed president of the Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana, with the rank of Minister of State.
In this position, he powers, intensifies and strengthens in an extraordinary way the development of the Guayana region, concluding and inaugurating the Guri hydroelectric plant, the Ciudad Bolívar-Ciudad Guayana and Ciudad Guayana-Upata highways; the El Dorado-Santa Elena de Uairén and Ciudad Bolívar-Caicara-Los Pijiguaos highways, including bridges over the Caura, Cuchivero, Suapure, Parguaza and Caroní rivers.
During his management, the works of the «Macagua» and «Caruachi» power plants were completed and the production capacities of the basic companies in the region were expanded: Sidor, Ferrominera, Venalum, Alcasa and Interalumina.
Likewise, during his management, the region’s health infrastructure was improved, with the construction of the Caicara, El Callao and Santa Elena de Uairén hospitals.
Almost 10 years of Engineer Leopoldo Sucre Figarella’s management at the head of the Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana were decisive for the consolidation of the Guayana Programme as the non-oil alternative, support of the Venezuelan economy.
LEOPOLDO SUCRE FIGARELLA. CONSTRUYENDO EL DORADO
The process of Planning the Economy of a country must necessarily go through the identification of the potential and opportunities of each region for its assertive use, hence the importance of the orientation of a Sectoral Planning based on the conditions and characteristics of each region.
Placing the Guayana Region as an example, this has a potential that has been harnessed for the installation and operation of industries associated with, in addition to the mineral resources it possesses, the electrical potential provided by the Caroní River. This experience in Guayana is clear evidence of Development Planning, linked to the benefits of its hydroelectric potential.
ELECTRIFICATION OF THE CARONÍ RIVER
ELECTRIFICATION OF THE CARONÍ RIVER
In 1953, the Commission for Special Studies for the Electrification of the Caroní River was created, with the aim of investigating and taking advantage of its hydroelectric potential. For two years, the Commission studies and explores the Lower and Upper Caroní and identifies possible sites for future Hydroelectric Power Plants, indicating the following places in Lower Caroní:
- Salto La Llovizna, 10 km from its mouth
- Paso Caruachi, 25 km upstream from Salto La Llovizna
- Tocoma, 75 km upstream from Salto La Llovizna
- The Nekuima Canyon, 100 km upstream from its mouth
In 1955, the preparation of the preliminary project for the Macagua I Hydroelectric Power Plant in El Salto La Llovizna began. On August 1, 1956, the construction of this Complex began with an estimated capacity of 372 MW, which was completed at the end of 1961, so that on April 8, 1962, the Orinoco Mining Company, the iron ore mining company from Cerro Bolívar received the first electrical power supply from Macagua I.
Motivated by the beginning of the exploitation of the hydroelectric potential of the Caroní River, the Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana CVG, formally constitutes the Electrificación del Caroní, CVG EDELCA, on July 23, 1963, an institution that will be in charge of continuing the project started in 1956.
In 1963, the contract for the construction of the Guri Hydroelectric Power Plant was signed, in the Nekuima canyon, 90 km upstream from Macagua I, so that in August 1963 work began on a 106-meter-high dam.
On November 8, 1968, Raúl Leoni, President of the Republic, set into operation the first 3 turbines of the Central, so that in 1978 the first stage would end, and immediately the second stage would begin to raise the capacity of the Guri Power Plant to 10,000 MW.
On November 8, 1986, President Jaime Lusinchi, inaugurated the last phase of the Power Plant to become the second Hydroelectric Power Plant in the world after ITAIPU, between Brazil and Paraguay.
Subsequently, President Jaime Lusinchi, on June 7, 1988, inaugurated the construction works of the Macagua II Power Plant next to Macagua I, for an estimated capacity of 2,540 MW, which entered into service on January 23, 1997, being inaugurated by President Rafael Caldera.
In this same year, 1997, the construction of the Caruachi Hydroelectric Power Plant began, 25 km upstream from Macagua I and II with a capacity of 2,196 MW, which entered into operation on March 31, 2006.
Finally, the construction of the Tocoma Hydroelectric Power Plant, 15 km downstream from the Guri Hydroelectric Power Plant with an estimated capacity of 2,160 MW began and was expected to be completed by mid-2012. In 2022, this work has not been completed.
Later, CVG EDELCA C.A would focus on the hydroelectric development of Alto Caroní in places known as: Tayucay, Aripichi, and Eutobarima. The following Table shows the hydroelectric capacities and potentialities of the Guayana region.
Hydroelectric Potential of the Guayana Region
As backup and complement to the National Electric System consisting of a series of Thermoelectric Plants located in the rest of the territory, the interconnection with part of the rest of the country was installed through high voltage lines. Support and complement of the National Electric System, which for the year 2000 would mean the use of Thermoelectric Plants and Hydroelectric Plants in a process of alternating supply balance depending on the season or periods of drought and/or rain, that is, during the lowering or raising of the levels of the dams.
For the year 2000, the total electricity supply capacity of Venezuela was designed and made up of 40% of the supply capacity coming from thermoelectric plants, and 60% coming from hydroelectric plants. Thermoelectric generation has always had a sufficient design capacity to supply energy to the country’s demand in dry years. As the design of hydroelectric generation depends on rainfall, there is always a guaranteed minimum value in dry years.
During the dry season, the hydroelectric plants would work at a lower intensity, being compensated with a greater use of the capacity of the thermoelectric plants, and vice versa, in rainy seasons when high levels of water are generated in the dams, there would be energy reserves from hydroelectric power plants. In this way, an uninterrupted electrical service was guaranteed for the entire country.
The Plan for the Supply of Electric Power nationwide, period 2003–2012, presented by Engineer Ángel Negrín on behalf of CVG EDELCA, at the XXXVI Round Table on the Electricity Industry, Advances in the Reform of the Venezuelan Electricity Sector, in Barquisimeto, Lara State, in September 2002, contemplated a scheduled new generation goal of 9,930 megawatts to reach a grand total of approximately 30,000 megawatts by the year 2012.
The criteria considered in the plan for the preparation of demand-generation balances, among others, included:
- an average year-on-year growth of 4.5%
- the new oil developments that were known at the time
- the new industrial developments in Guayana: for the aluminium industry, the V Line of Alcasa and the VI line of Venalum, the Danielli Iron and Steel Project, the Serfoca Forestry Project, for the production of newsprint, an item that does not exist in the country and of which were imported for the year 2003, 140,000 tons per year to supply national and regional newspapers
MINERAL RESOURCES
VISIONARIES OF GUAYANA. MINERAL RESOURCES
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The Guayana Region has the energy and natural resources to be a power in the production of iron, steel, aluminium, and the installation of an associated industrial park. It is a land of enormous deposits of different metallic and non-metallic minerals, among which are iron, bauxite, gold, manganese, titanium, granite, coltan, diamond, among others.
Thanks to the great positive impact on the economic and social development of the Guayana Region and the country, the greatest emphasis on the use of mineral resources has been directed for several decades, to iron, for the production of steel, and to bauxite, for the production of alumina (aluminum oxide), and from it, for the production of aluminium.
IRON
CVG Ferrominera Orinoco C.A. arises as a consequence of the nationalization of the iron ore industry. The two North American companies that were responsible in Venezuela for the exploitation and commercialization of iron ore in the Guayana deposits since the end of the 1940s were:
· Iron Mines Company of Venezuela
· Orinoco Mining Company
The initial activities began with the exploitation of ore from Cerro El Pao, located east of the Caroní River, 50 km from Ciudad Guayana. In 1974, the iron industry was nationalized, and the minutes’ agreement was approved between the Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana, CVG, and the companies Iron Mines Company and Orinoco Mining Company, and their parent companies.
In 1975 the Venezuelan State, through the CVG, assumes direct control and exercises the right of full ownership of the Iron Industry, as well as complete management.
Located in the vicinity of Ciudad Piar, in the south of Bolívar State, Cerro Bolívar and Cerro Altamira deposits were the first two to be exploited. Later, Cerro Redondo, Cerro Los Barrancos and Cerro Las Pailas, among others of smaller size, thus forming what is called the San Isidro Iron Quadrilateral.
The San Isidro mine began operations in 1985, and at the same time Ferrominera was advancing plans to support the mining development of the Pijiguaos (Bauxite), the rescue of the Minorca Plant and its supply with mineral from the company, and the Construction of the Iron Ore Transfer System to increase export capacity and conquer new markets.
CVG Ferrominera Orinoco C.A. as an exploiter and processor of iron ore, has a current installed capacity of 24 million tons/year. This is generated in:
- Mines (Extraction and Mineral Processing): 24 MM t/year
- Pellets Plant (Pre-reduced): 2.5 MM t/year
- Briquette Plant (Steelworks): 1.5 MM t/year
A Second Pellet Line of 2.5 MM t/year and a Quartzite Concentration Plant are currently under construction to process 12 MM t/year and produce 8 MM t/year.
With proven reserves of 4,200 million tons (MM t), the company carries out its own mineral transport between the mines and the production centers, and at the same time between these and the docks through a system of railways and ships. Additionally, it has a Transfer Station in open waters at the mouth of the Orinoco River with a storage capacity of 180,000 t, which allows it to carry out movements of more than 6 MM t/year.
BAUXITE
The Guayana Shield is very prolific in mineral deposits, among which large extensions of bauxite can be found, one of which is already commercially exploited in the Cedeño Municipality of Bolívar State, specifically in Los Pijiguaos area where CVG Bauxilum operates a mine that It has a current installed capacity of the order of six million tons per year.
In 1985, CVG Ferrominera Orinoco (FMO) company, with the intervention of its teams of geologists and mining engineers, designed and established the initial exploitation plan for the CVG Bauxiven company, as a technical contribution between companies of the same CVG group.
On March 24, 1994, the merger of CVG Bauxiven and CVG Interalumina, the mine, and the refiner, for the production of alumina gave way to the company we know today: CVG Bauxilum.
Bauxite is extracted at Los Pijiguaos mine, to later be transported, processed, and converted into alumina at the Puerto Ordaz Plant. A portion of the alumina produced is destined for the local market, with the main customers being CVG Alcasa and CVG Venalum, additionally, there are also smaller customers such as abrasive producing companies, ceramic industries, water treatment plants, among others. The rest of the alumina not consumed nationally is exported, with CVG Bauxilum having its own port facilities for such purposes.
In addition to the already commercially exploited bauxite deposit in Los Pijiguaos, preliminary studies have shown the existence of various bauxite deposits in the Guayana Shield. The analyzes carried out indicate that the inferred resources in granitic rocks could reach 2,621 MMt in the entire Guayana region, with alumina percentages of up to 52%, and specifically it is considered that the inferred resources in El Palmar area are of the order of the 475 million tons.
In 2009, in a study carried out by the Universidad de Oriente, Núcleo Bolívar, the potential areas of inferred bauxite resources were evaluated in the former “Río Grande I Concession”, in the El Palmar deposit. In this way, the inferred resources are 475,000,000 tons for a depth of 4 meters and 270,000,000 tons for a depth of 2 meters. For both cases, the tonnage was increased, if compared to the CVG Tecmin report of 1989, where the inferred resources were initially established at 150,000,000 tons.
All the information on the history, mineral resources and exploitation methods of Los Pijiguaos bauxite mine is available in the document prepared by the Geologist Engineer and Specialist in Mining Technology, Noel Mariño, at the link:
https://acading.org.ve/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/TI_NOEL_MARINO.pdf
Under the management of Engineer Noel Mariño as General Manager of Operations, it was possible to reach in 2006 the highest production level in the history of Los Pijiguaos Bauxite mine, with a crushed production of 5,927,839 tons and 5,764,053 tons of barge cargo.
The El Palmar area is close to the Orinoco Delta, the CVG Bauxilum alumina plant, as well as the Deltana Platform gas developments. The commercial exploitation of the El Palmar deposit offers the National Executive options for attracting foreign investment, opening to private capital, job creation, economic reactivation, territorial deconcentration of highly populated areas, and starting functions by executing projects with a great impact on the economy. Investors can develop greenfield-type projects, both in the industrial park and in the urban area.
As the production of aluminium in Venezuela has the advantage of a bauxite mine and an alumina plant, the production of aluminium does not incur in costs of freight, unloading, and handling of alumina, thus considerably reducing the cost of production and therefore improving the profits. Similarly, the country has sufficient hydroelectric infrastructure located in the same state where the aluminium industrial park is located, so electricity costs are highly competitive.
STEEL AND ALUMINIUM INDUSTRIES
STEEL
The iron and steel industry in Guayana is developed taking advantage of the extraction of iron ore. Siderúrgica del Orinoco, SIDOR, was created for the production of flat and tubular products, slabs, and billets. Sidor was established in 1963, reaching a production of 1,250,000 tons per year in 1971. In the period 75-79, Sidor’s Plan IV was carried out to produce 4,800,000 tons of steel products, culminating in the flat products plant in 1975 and starting up in 1978, the pellet plant, the Direct Reduction plant, the billet steelworks, and slabs.
In 1996, Sidor reached a maximum steel production of 3,100,000 t.
In 2007, after ten years of Sidor’s privatization, the steel plant went from producing 2,800,000 to 4,300,000 tons of steel.
ALUMINIUM
INTEGRATED PRODUCTIVE CHAIN OF ALUMINIUM
In order to take advantage of the hydroelectric potential of the Guayana Region, the construction of Aluminio del Caroní, Alcasa, began its operations in 1967 with an annual production capacity of 10,000 tons, reaching a capacity of 50,000 tons per year in1973. In 1978, Alcasa expanded its production capacity to 120,000 t/year, and later to 200,00 t/year.
In 1975 the construction of Venalum began, producing in 1978, 70,000 tons per year. The construction of its 4 cell lines with Reynolds Technology, for an installed production capacity of 280,000 t/year, was completed in 1980.
After introducing the improvements for the modernization of its original cells, and additionally building the V-Line with Hydro Technology, Venalum reached an installed production capacity of 430,000 t/year, until 2008 when the power supply was cut off.
In 1977, construction began on the alumina refining plant, Interalumina, with an installed production capacity of 1,600,000 tons of alumina per year. In 1978 bauxite reserves suitable for the production of alumina were discovered, thus guaranteeing the productive chain of the aluminium sector. Between 1984 and 1987, the Bauxivén bauxite extraction plant was built in Pijiguaos, 650 km upriver from the Orinoco.
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