Mining activities are on the verge of recommencing at Lindo Creek as a team of miners was spotted headed for the location complete with equipment and supplies earlier this week.
Stabroek News was reliably informed that on Wednesday last, the owner of a concession in the area and officers of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) came upon a group of men near Lindo Creek.
According to the concession owner, they came upon the men at 76KL UNAMCO Road. “We went over to the guys and enquired from them if they were not afraid to go there because it was so recent that eight men died there and they haven’t even been buried yet,” the source said. “They said that people died all over the country and jumbie don’t do them nothing, so ‘we doing what we have to do. No jumbie wouldn’t bother us.’”
Contacted, Camp Lindo owner Leonard Arokium said he had granted permission for a group of persons to go into the area and do prospecting work.
He said that none of them had been in the area before and that no one who was prospecting in the area where the killings occurred wanted to return. “No one is going to go back there,” he said.
According to him, after the prospecting exercise a business decision will be made between himself and these potential miners. “If these persons are interested, I may conduct a deal with them to allow them to do mining,” he said.
However, this would only be official after it has been approved by the GGMC, Arokium explained.
He said there was “no official deal” between him and these persons for any mining to commence. But if after the prospecting these persons are interested he may agree to make a deal with them. The concession owner said the prospectors had prepared a meal of chowmein and they shared it with their visitors.
The men said they reside in Linden and Mocha. They were in the process of unloading their supplies from a truck owned by Earl Griffith of CRM Enterprise, Subryanville.
The six-man crew had equipment such as engines and pumps and a large quantity of food supplies among other things.
The truck had stopped on a side road that leads to camp site where the eight men were found burnt to death.
The source said the men revealed that they had reached the location on Tuesday, but the truck was unable to go any further. They were preparing to trek the remainder of their journey by foot.
The men said they were aware that the concession was owned by Arokium and they had his permission to be there.
