Eleven persons are feared dead and several others were injured after a huge mining cave-in at Mowsie Creek, Region 8 (Potaro/Siparuni) yesterday afternoon.
A police official told Stabroek News that they received information of the cave-in sometime around 2:30 pm yesterday and had since deployed ranks to the area. The official said that from reports seven persons were hauled from the pit alive and two of those had serious injuries. Another 11 are reported to be buried under the sludge and are feared dead. The official explained that the force expects a preliminary report on the incident but the area was very difficult to get to and the logistics coupled with heavy rainfall in the area might set back getting to the site.
The names of the men were not given as an employee of a nearby dredge said that formal names were scarcely used in the mining camps. He referred to two of his friends who are feared dead as ‘Danko’ and ‘Foot’.
Acting Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Joseph Harmon told Stabroek News yesterday that he was contacted by Guyana Gold Diamond and Mining Association President, Patrick Harding who informed him of the accident. He said that Harding informed that there was a rescue team on the ground and should assistance be needed from the administration he would relay information. Harmon said that if this request for assistance in the rescue is made it would be granted.
This newspaper understands that the close to 100-feet pit was being worked by the crews of two dredges comprising eight persons per dredge. There are also reports that the General Manager of one of the dredges might also be buried under the mud. Both dredges are owned by a man only identified as “Imran”, the son of a popular Grove, East Bank Demerara spare parts dealer called `Rasta’.
The land has been in dispute for some time with its owner Harold Hopkinson last year going to the courts to stop the illegal mining on his property. However working of the lands continued.
When this newspaper visited Imran’s residence yesterday, a group of men said that Imran had left the city for Mahdia and that they had no confirmed news except that one of Imran’s pits had caved in with 17 men. According to information received by Stabroek News, a complaint was made to the General Manager of the operation that the pit had a crack and that the heavy rainfall posed a risk of it collapsing. A worker explained that when the pit was being dug for dredging it was cut in a steep square and not ‘shelved off’, as such layers of the gravel called the ‘cash cow’ was left at the top of the pit. He said that from yesterday morning as heavy rains came the pit started cracking and this was brought to the attention of the GM by another young man. He said that the workers’ concerns were dismissed and the crew worked through and without any problems and came up for lunch shortly after 11:30 am. He said that it was when they returned to the pit at some minutes to 1pm that persons from nearby were first alerted to screams but could do nothing as the pit rapidly caved in from the top covering the crew and their equipment.
Persons from nearby camps rushed to the scene and began assisting in the rescue. The police were also alerted to the incident. Pit collapses have been a frequent occurrence in the mining industry.
