Dead teen had no mining experience, mom says

Dennis Anthony Barker

The mother of 16-year-old, Dennis Anthony Barker, who was crushed when a mining pit caved in at Pamela in Mahdia told this publication that her son had no prior mining experience.

She said, “He knew how to cook and that was what he went into Mahdia to do originally; cook for a camp.” Derise da Silva stated that her son “left the work and went to another camp but they had a cook so they sent him to the pits. He didn’t know what he was doing.”

The sector is vastly unregulated as the mining boom continues in Guyana’s hinterlands.