Small miners pledge allegiance to ‘green’ economy
Puruni miner, Cheryl Williams
Puruni miner, Cheryl Williams

–drafting own safety regulations to prove it

AS they await the processing of their applications for land, small miners who have formed themselves into syndicates across the country are demanding that their contribution to the economy should not be taken lightly.

They promise to be fully compliant with safety regulations, to the extent that they are in the process of drafting their own safety guidelines, with the help of the GGMC to ensure that the regulation are on par with the body’s rules and regulations.

Miners gathered at the Square of the Revolution on Monday

According to Cheryl Williams, a miner attached to the Puruni Small Miners’ Syndicate, safety is very important where they’re concerned.
Addressing the first ‘Syndicate’ forum on Monday at the Square of the Revolution, Williams said that their ultimate goal is to have “zero accidents” in the mining industry.
And in order to achieve that goal, she said, the parent body, ‘Syndicates in one’, is heavily depending on the GGMC to train miners in good safety practices.
“We can chase after gold, diamonds and other minerals; all of that is okay, but safety comes first,” Williams said.

A MATTER OF SURVIVAL
At the forum, the little over 100 small miners in attendance made it clear that they are not at all attempting to compete with the large-scale miners, but are rather looking to survive in an ever evolving industry.
As a matter of fact, they say they are fully prepared to function in keeping with the country’s ‘green’ initiative, as it’s important for them to mine in a hazard-free manner.
The miners contend that for far too long, they have been struggling to obtain land from the government, and are grateful to the APNU-AFC coalition government for living up to its promises thus far.
Judith Blair, who represents the Karau Mining Syndicate, said small miners are progressive people who are looking for an avenue to continue contributing to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The former parliamentarian said the formation of syndicates will see miners working in an entirely different environment.
“Under syndicates, we will no longer work in the way we worked in the past; we will be organised and have rules,” she told her colleague small-scale miners.

NO MORE TIP
In keeping with the rules that will govern the syndicates, Blair said there’ll be zero tolerance for Trafficking in Persons (TIP) and child labour, twin ills currently plaguing the industry.
She noted, too, that the time has come for females in the industry to be respected. “It is time we protect our womenfolk. And let us not forget our youths; we must shy away from

Judith Blair, a member of the Karau Syndicate

child labour; we must encourage our 16-year-olds to remain in school,” Blair said, adding:
“We can mine without our children being in the backdam; it is dangerous.” Having said that, she proceeded to call on government agencies to ensure that there is strict monitoring of the backdams to ensure that child labour is stomped out.
And, stressing the importance of syndicates to the mining sector, Blair made it clear that once small miners work together much can be achieved. “We will move forward if we work together; this land doesn’t belong to one set of people,” she said.
She further called on the authorities to examine those who are in possession of mining lands for a number of years but are not utilising them, as she believes that those lands ought to be confiscated and handed out to small-scale miners.

BILLS TO PAY
“We have bills to pay; children to feed,” she said, while noting that the lands promised to small miners through syndicates need to be made available speedily.
“Processing of these lands should take precedence in GGMC; we need to have our land to work,” a passionate Blair told her colleagues who readily agreed with her.
Similarly, Renwick Solomon stressed the need for miners to be given fertile lands to mine. He said over the years, small scale miners were given lands to which were already mined out. “We aint working pine…we working gold…we need good lands to mine,” he stated.
He applauded the government for making a promise to small miners when they campaigned leading up to the 2015 general and regional elections and said, the administration has lived up to its word. “We are not competing with anybody; we are trying to survive- we approached the government with our plea and they have responded favourably,” Solomon stated.
NOTHING NEW
Additionally, Bastiani, a miner attached to the Mahdia Syndicate, explained that syndicates are not a new and unheard of initiative, but one that began many years ago. He referenced former Prime Minister Samuel Hinds encouraging miners to form themselves into syndicates but that suggestion by the former Prime Minister differs from that which obtains today.
“Twenty years ago, Sam Hinds called on us to form syndicates…but it was a lottery, lottery syndicate where you had to apply for land. We formed ourselves into groups of four but the persons in the group were randomly chosen…they selected us from the beginning so we started with failures,” Bastiani explained.
The Mahdia miner said that as a result of syndicates “miners now have a voice” noting that it is no longer ‘a rat race’.
“This movement is big; it is different now…This is a fight for survival,” the miner added.

 

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