– GGMC had issued ‘cease-work order’

THE Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) has received reports of a mining fatality in the Konawaruk area, Mining District 2. The Guyana Police Force has since identified the casualty as 18-year-old Trenston Sebastian of Kurukubaru, Region 8, and according to the GGMC efforts are being made to recover his body.
A statement from the GGMC said that while details are still to be confirmed about the exact nature of the accident, reports have indicated that at approximately 15:15hrs on March 14, 2016 a pit cave-in occurred while a dredge, purportedly owned by a Sherwin Grenada, was in operation.

CEASE WORK ORDER
“It was also reported that the dredge was operating on property without permission and for which an order to cease work (CWO) was issued,” the GGMC noted.
According to the GGMC, the accident comes at a time when the Commission recently conducted a Mines Safety Compliance Tour in the Potaro and Konawaruk areas.
It was noted that several CWOs were issued due to unsafe operations in the Mahdia Redhole, Whitehole and St. Elizabeth areas.
“This unfortunate occurrence also comes at a time when GGMC had a wrap-up on March 14, 2016 of a first phase geotechnical engineering training workshop involving some 20 technical officers, who over the past six weeks were exposed to applied aspects of ground structural phenomenon, so that they would be better equipped to objectively identify operational issues that could be hazardous in mining; better tooled to work with miners to effect safer solutions; and more proficient at advocating to miners operational awareness for better technical approaches,” the statement noted.
According to the Commission, many of those same officers were involved in a Training of Trainers workshop in collaboration with CIRDI/IDB at Linden R&D and in Mahdia where aspects of Occupation Safety and Health were on the table along with mining efficiency and also involving mining stakeholders.
“This unfortunate accident brings to the forefront that even in the last quarter of 2015, after the horrific Mowasi accident, investigations by GGMC officers on regulatory compliance tours in areas such as in the Cuyuni District, miners continued to have a casual attitude to safe mines practices,” the statement concluded.