NATURAL Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman, has appointed a team of experts to review the functions of the Guyana Gold Board’s laboratory, as a result of incidents of elevated mercury emissions within the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission’s (GGMC) compound and its environs, and the potential risk posed to workers and residents.
Minister Trotman appointed the committee of experts on Saturday with the specific mandate to examine all aspects of the lab’s operations. The committee is also mandated to make recommendations for the lab’s efficient, secure, and environmentally safe operations, including its relocation. Suitable and secure sites for the relocation of the laboratory will also be examined.
“The appointment of the committee follows on a public commitment made by the minister to have a team of experts review the operations of the Gold Board’s laboratory to ascertain whether the laboratory is functioning in a safe and environmentally friendly manner, and if not, to have recommendations made for its improved service,” the Natural Resources ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
The committee is headed by Dr David Singh, who holds a Doctorate in Chemistry and is currently the executive director of Conservation International (Guyana), and includes Keith John, retired Assistant Commissioner of Police, and one member each from the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission and the Guyana Gold Board.
Work will commence on Wednesday, April 18, 2018, and a report will be submitted within one month, the ministry said.
On Friday, an Air Quality Monitoring Report, compiled by Kaizen Environmental Services (Guyana) Limited, revealed that mercury levels within the compound of GGMC, which also houses the Guyana Gold Board and its lab, are in keeping with the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (US OHSA) standards.
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 GGMC compound, Brickdam on March 28, 2018. According to the report which was compiled by Kaizen and released by the Natural Resources ministry, 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.
The waiting area, laboratory, smelting room, burning room, mercury abatement site, GGMC parking lot, GGMC HR department, Main security hut and GGMC Hadfield Street security hut were among 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 on the matter. During that press conference Minister Trotman proposed that “expert’s review” of the Gold Board’s laboratory be conducted in light of additional findings that from a total of 130 GGMC staff tested, 60 persons had a higher-than-normal level of mercury.
