Miners should ensure their operations are ‘safe and legitimate’ – Bharrat

Miners in Guyana are being urged to make safety a priority, especially at nights when monitoring activities may be limited.

Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat made the call in the context of the recent accident at St. Elizabeth Backdam, Potaro, Region Eight, where two miners – Sherwayne Joseph and Imran Blake – lost their lives when the mining pit they were working in collapsed.

Bharrat spoke to the News Room on Wednesday on the sidelines of a ceremony at Duke Lodge to sign a contract with United States company Global Venture Natural Resources Consulting for a mineral mapping project in Guyana.

According to him, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission has from time to time sent out notices and has been working with various mining bodies to ensure that miners are engaged in safe mining practices and that they are using the best methods possible, even if it may cost a little more.

Joseph, 26, and Blake, 19, along with seven other workers were on the night shift at an eight-inch dredging operation.

“I am personally calling on miners to ensure that safety is a priority. Your life and your family are important. I know the price of gold is high now and because of that many persons are going back to the gold field, but at the same time your life, your family, your well-being is important so we need to engage in safe mining practices and we need to ensure that whatever activity we are engaged in, it is a legitimate legal mining exercise too.”

Minister Bharrat added that it is necessary too that if the operations are being done at night proper monitoring systems are in place.

“The incident occurred around 1 am and it is unfortunate that they were out there at that time. More than likely at that time, not much monitoring is done. So I want to call on miners to be more responsible.”

The Ministry of Labour’s Occupational Safety and Health department is investigating the collapse. The dredge was reportedly unregistered.

Police said three other workers were in the pit when a co-worker said he heard a rumbling sound and noticed that land/soil had broken away and started to fall into the mining pit.

The worker told investigators that he raised an alarm alerting the workers in the pit. The land covered Joseph and Blake and buried them beneath, though the other three workers in the pit managed to escape.