…monitoring study finds mercury levels in keeping with safety standards

AN Air Quality Monitoring study conducted by Kaizen Environmental Services (Guyana) Limited has found that the Mercury (Hg) levels within the compound of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), which also houses the Guyana Gold Board and its lab, is in keeping with the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (US OHSA) standards.

Despite the results of the study, Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman is recommending that an “expert review” of the Gold Board’s laboratory be conducted, in the light of additional findings that from a total of 130 GGMC staff tested, 60 persons had higher than the normal level of mercury.

Kaizen Environmental Services (Guyana) – a subsidiary of Kaizen Environmental Services Trinidad Limited — conducted the Air Quality Monitoring tests at the Gold Board’s laboratory and its environs at the GGMC compound, Brickdam, on March 28, 2018. According to the report which was compiled by Kaizen and released by the Natural Resources Ministry on Friday, 10 locations within the compound were monitored and were found to be within the norm.

“The Mercury (Hg) levels monitored at all ten (10) locations were within the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (US OSHA) eight-hour Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL),” the Kaizen report concluded.

Notably, the waiting area, laboratory, smelting room, burning room, mercury abatement site, GGMC parking lot, GGMC HR Department, Main Security Hut, GGMC Hadfield Street Security Hut and Conway’s Enterprise, Hadfield Street, were the areas covered during the monitoring exercise conducted by Kaizen.

The report was released hours after the Guyana Gold Board held a joint press conference with the Ministry of Natural Resources at Duke Lodge in Kingston to discuss the concern that GGMC and Gold Board staff may be exposed to high levels of mercury.

From the outset of the press conference, Minister Trotman; the Guyana Gold Board Chairman, Gabriel Lall; and the General Manager of the Guyana Gold Board, Eondrene Thompson, stated that the health and safety of persons utilising the compound, primarily the workers, are of paramount importance.

“It is a priority and our actions have been geared towards addressing the situation toward resolving the situation satisfactorily,” Lall told a corps of reporters on Friday.
He said it was on that basis that the Gold Board contracted the services of the Trinidad company to carry out an independent exercise to determine the air quality within the compound of GGMC, where the lab is being housed.

According to Lall, the report is “comforting.” It was noted that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assisted in the process, working in conjunction with Kaizen.

The Gold Board General Manager echoed Lall’s sentiments. Thompson said once the Gold Board realised that there was a problem, it utilised a “multi-pronged” approach to rectify the situation. Thompson noted that Kaizen Environmental Services is now in the process of doing a “mercury analysis.” Representatives from the company reportedly revisited the area on Thursday to initiate this second phase of its examination.

In addition to Kaizen, the Guyana Gold Board also contracted the services of Activation Lab on the East Coast of Demerara, which conducted its own assessments. Recommendations have already been handed to the Gold Board to improve on its operations at the laboratory.
According to the Gold Board officials, over $300,000 has been spent thus far to facilitate the monitoring exercise.

But although the findings of the report by Kaizen maybe “comforting,” Minister Trotman said the long-term implications of the processing of gold by the Gold Board must be considered.

According to Minister Trotman, an expert’s review with recommendations on the future of the lab should be facilitated to determine if it is to be continued where it is to be housed, emphasising that safety and security are key concerns. “I am proposing an expert’s review for the functions of the Gold Board’s lab to see how it could be made to better function, where it should be situated, what scientific and other methodology should be used and deployed to ensure that safety comes first for both the workers in the lab and those who are around the lab,” Minister Trotman proposed.

He said government is looking strongly at the possibility of building a gold refinery here while adding that within a couple of days, representatives from a South African company are expected in Guyana to explore the possibility. However, he warned that such long-term decisions would have implications and repercussions. “The longer-term decisions have impacts and repercussions on state revenues and so decisions can’t be made in a day, they can’t be made in a second, they have to be made over time,” he emphasised.