Three miners were doused with gasoline and almost set on fire during the raid by an armed gang on a mining camp at Issano on Sunday.
Up to last evening, a senior police official said ranks were still in the area searching for the suspects in the attack, during which the men stole millions in valuables, including raw gold.
Carmaleta Thomas, wife of owner of the mining operation Clive Thomas, called ‘Sammy,’ said that while the robbers tried to set the three miners on fire, her husband and others managed to run to safety.
Although she was not at the camp when the attack occurred, the woman said she was told that two employees ran for their lives while the three were tied up and doused with gasoline. She said that the gunmen attempted to set them on fire but “the lighter did not light to burn them.”
By this time, her husband had already set off for a nearby mining camp. According to Mrs Thomas, he had left his gun and gone nearby and later noticed strangers in the camp. As a result, he tried to retrieve his weapon but noticed three gunmen, which prompted him to run to the next camp, some two hours away, where he related what was happening. Thomas borrowed an ATV and a firearm and went in search of the men. “He is not a scared person, he is not afraid,” she said, while trying to explain why her husband went in search of the armed men unaccompanied.
The police were later contacted but by the time they arrived at the camp there was no trace of the gunmen. Mrs Thomas said based on the information she received, the attack occurred around 7 pm Sunday and the ranks travelled to the area around 1 am Monday. She added that while the response time could have been better, it probably would not have made a difference since the bandits would have already had a head start.
There was a “wash down” on the day before the robbery, according to Mrs Thomas. She said that the raw gold yielded from that operation amounted to about seven ounces, which is worth approximately $2.1M. The other items taken by the gang amounted to around $6M, she added.
Police had said in a statement on the robbery that in addition to the raw gold, a firearm, a quantity of ammunition, a radio set, an ATV and $100,000 cash were taken. The ATV suspected to have been used by the bandits was found by her husband abandoned on a hill about a mile and a half from the camp.
Believing that the ATV belonged to the bandits, Mrs Thomas related that her husband “lie down by it ‘til day clean” hoping that the men would return for it. “He is a man with a lot of courage… I fear that he could have been killed but God was in charge,” she explained.
Clive Thomas has been in the mining business for about 11 years, according to his wife, who said it was the first time they had been robbed. Her husband never paid much attention to security because “he didn’t like too much crowd,” she added. While speaking to this newspaper from her home in Bartica yesterday, Mrs Thomas was making arrangements to travel to the location today to bring her husband home.
Police had said that the attack occurred around 6:30pm, when five men, three of whom were armed with shotguns, invaded the camp and discharged several rounds in the process. President of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGMDA) Patrick Harding on Tuesday said that attacks on mining camps continue to be a concern for the Association. He said that while the GGDMA is working with police, monitoring the movement of people travelling in and out of interior locations is the key.
