THE Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) has temporarily moved one of its operations to a location in Subryanville, as part of the measures put in place to address the concerns of mercury exposure at the agency’s Brickdam head office.

The move follows a walkout by a number of staffers last Friday, resulting in a decision being taken by the Ministry of Natural Resources to re-locate the Guyana Gold Board’s laboratory from the GGMC compound.

A number of GGMC workers who had promised not to return to work if satisfactory measures had not been implemented, remained off the job on Monday, despite the efforts being made to rectify concerns regarding the mercury exposure.

Commissioner Newell Dennison told the Guyana Chronicle that some workers remained off the job following last Friday’s protest and walkout.
He, however, said that the Ministry of Natural Resources and its sister agencies, the GGMC and the Gold Board, are committed to supporting the affected workers.
Dennison said that since the walkout, work was done over the weekend by a special team to ascertain the way forward. This team, he pointed out, will submit a report to the Natural Resources Ministry and the outcome of that report will determine the answers to be given to the many questions being asked by GGMC staffers regarding their safety.

“What is important for the GGMC with this initiative,” he said, “is the outcome of the special team’s work to give a report to the workers on what is planned, and whether it would make them feel comfortable to return.”

Though cognisant that the move to Sybryanville will not solve the problem currently facing the GGMC, Dennison said it is an option to help address the matter. And, while he conceded that there isn’t much that could be said to convince workers to return to the job right now, he did hint that the efforts being made by the agencies involved should speak for itself.

The Natural Resources Ministry said last Friday that it had convened a special meeting with officials of the Guyana Gold Board and the GGMC, and that a decision was taken to re-locate the Gold Board’s laboratory from the GGMC compound.

“The critical decision was taken that the laboratory would be moved within the shortest possible time, so as to safeguard the health of workers of the GGMC and Gold Board,” the ministry said in a statement, and that its intention is to have the laboratory moved first, and then the administrative offices of the Board thereafter.

A number of GGMC staffers who’d been tested were found with unfavourable levels of mercury in their systems, believed to be as a result of emissions from the Gold Boards laboratory. Many have been treated and sent on sick leave, and as many as 70 other workers are expected to be treated and sent home to recuperate.

The staffers were, however, upset that enough was not being done to cater for them. They were especially concerned that the Gold Board had continued burning mercury-laced gold in the compound among other issues.

Wearing face masks in silent protest, the staff said last Friday that they would not be working in the GGMC compound after managers, too, had decided that they would not be functioning in the environment.

Dennison said that the agencies are working so that the GGMC staffers, those who are currently on leave, those expected to go on sick leave, those out in field and those staying away because of their own self-interest, would feel comfortable and safe enough to operate at the location.