A MINING pit caved in on Wednesday night, resulting in the death of Trayon Hastings, a 38-year-old miner of Kamarang Landing, Upper Mazaruni and Rocky Norton (particulars unknown), around 22:30hrs at Moonlight Backdam, Kamarang Landing.

According to a press release, the police visited the scene around 01:00hrs on Thursday morning, and enquiries revealed that Trayon Hastings owned a six-inch land dredge mining operation at Moonlight Backdam, and Rocky Norton was employed with him.

On Wednesday night, Hastings and Norton were working alone in the mining pit when Mark Embelton, a 37-year-old miner of Kitty, Georgetown, who was in a camp close by, observed the mining pit caving in and raised an alarm.
A search party was immediately organised, which operated with the assistance of two excavators.

The motionless bodies of the two men were found around 12:30hrs and 01:20hrs Thursday morning, respectively.
The body of Hastings was examined, and injuries to his abdomen and head were observed, whilst the body of Norton was observed to have injuries to his right side ear.

The bodies were escorted to the Kamarang District Hospital, where they were seen and examined by Dr. Mark Allen, who pronounced them dead and the two bodies were transported to Georgetown for a post-mortem. The police have confirmed that investigations are ongoing.