The scene of the Region Eight mining pit collapse in which 10 miners died last month has been at the centre of a two-year court battle and mediation which has left the plaintiff frustrated at the protracted proceedings.
Culpability for mining breaches and the death of the men is now a matter that is being addressed by the Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC).
Expressing regret at the loss of life, Edward Hopkinson, the holder of the Mining Permit for the Pepper Creek, Konawaruk area in a statement to Stabroek News has set out how the operator of the mine, Imran Khan has been able to thwart his efforts to have him removed. Khan has not spoken to the press about the terms of his arrangement for the mining permit.
Hopkinson said that in February/March 2013, he granted Khan permission to operate three dredges and a Kobelco excavator on his Mining Permit H-78/MP/000 (now described as H-79/MP/000 by the GGMC). Hopkinson said the agreement entailed that Khan would pay a fee for the year on the dredges and excavator and a percentage on the gold produced which he noted is commonly referred to as “tribute.”
Hopkinson said that the dispute with Khan developed when he declined to give him permission to operate a second excavator. Hopkinson said he was concerned that the water required for such work would be in short supply during the dry season. He said that the two had originally agreed that Khan’s source of water would be the overflow from the reservoir of his (Hopkinson’s) mining operation.
“On 25 July 2013, he informed me that if I did not grant him permission to operate a second excavator, he would stop paying tribute on his gold production. On 29 July, 2013, he started to operate the second excavator, a Doosan, on the property. Shortly thereafter, on or around 31 July, 2013, he refused to pay tribute on the gold that he had produced,” Hopkinson said.
On 7 August, 2013, Hopkinson said, he notified the GGMC about Khan’s unauthorised use of the Doosan excavator and other breaches of the mining regulations. Hopkinson said that this included not having his workers’ Mining Privileges en-dorsed by him and therefore not being entitled to be on the property. Hopkinson said this resulted in the GGMC issuing Cease Work Orders on 8 August, 2013.
“On 9 August, 2013, as he still refused to pay the tribute that was due to me, I advised the GGMC that I was withdrawing permission for Khan to operate. On 10 August, 2013, the GGMC issued further Cease Work Orders and Notices to Remove within 48 hours,” Hopkinson said.
It was thereafter that Khan sought recourse to the courts.
On 13 August, 2013, Hopkinson said, Khan obtained a Writ of Certiorari from acting Chief Justice Ian Chang against the GGMC. The following week, on 21 August, 2013, he obtained an ex-parte injunction from Justice Sandra Kurtzious preventing Hopkinson and the GGMC from interfering with his use of the three dredges and the Kobelco excavator.
Hopkinson said the matter was listed for hearing in the Chambers of Justice Kurtzious and then of Justice Roxane George on seven occasions between September 2013 and February 2014. Each hearing, he said, lasted no more than a few minutes and a few of the occasions were just to set a date for the next hearing. Hopkinson said that the matter was eventually referred to mediation by Justice George who advised that it was up to the GGMC to take action.
Hopkinson said the mediation meeting occurred on 15 July, 2014. During this meeting, he said, Khan denied that he had ever paid him tribute, even though Hopkinson said he had carbon copies of the receipts that had been issued to him. Khan, he said, also claimed that the photograph Hopkinson’s agent had taken of the Kobelco and Doosan excavators operating together could have been taken anywhere, thereby effectively denying that he was using a Doosan excavator on his mining operation.
Hopkinson said he came to the conclusion that Khan was using the legal proceedings and mediation to continue to operate on the property without permission. Increasingly dissatisfied with his then lawyer, Hopkinson said, he retained new counsel in August 2014. His lawyer is concentrating on having the injunction against him set aside which would then allow him to remove Khan. He said his new lawyer is currently waiting on Khan’s lawyer to reply to his defence and counter claim, which was lodged in April 2015.
Hopkinson noted that when the court grants an ex-parte injunction, it would have heard only one party’s version of the matter. “This matter has now been in the Courts for almost two years during which time Khan has been allowed to mine my property without my permission or that of the GGMC and has extracted gold, a non-renewable resource, to which he is not entitled,” Hopkinson lamented.
He also alleged that Khan continues to breach mining regulations.
In February 2015, Hopkinson said, Khan began to operate a third excavator, another Doosan, on the property without his permission or that of the GGMC. He said both of the Doosan excavators are visible in an image published in Stabroek News on 20 May, 2015.
Adjacent
Although they were initially mining adjacent to each other, Hopkinson said that he stopped mining near to Khan not long after the dispute started in 2013. Currently, Hopkinson said, he is not mining anywhere near to Khan. He said in January this year he moved his mining operation from the property on which Khan was working to another property four miles away as the crow flies but 13 miles away via road. He said that operation is now being conducted in a mining pit that is as deep, if not deeper, than the one in which Khan was operating at the time of the accident. Hopkinson said that the GGMC pays regular visits there and is satisfied with the practices being followed and the design of his mine. Hopkinson noted that Kaieteur News reported in an article on page 19 of its 28 May 2015 edition that Khan was claiming that the overburden that slid into the collapsed pit was his (Hopkinson’s).
“Even if that were true, which it is not, then Khan should have moved it when he began working in that area. To emphasise this point, in January 2014 Khan started throwing his overburden onto an area that had been cleared by me for my own mining operation. The matter was of such significance that an affidavit by my mines manager about this issue was filed with the Courts as I would have to clear away his overburden before I could work that area,” Hopkinson asserted.
Michael Gardener, 26; Brian Brittlebank, 46, of Wismar; Linden and Raymond August of Dartmouth, Essequibo; Leland Jones and his nephew Jason Trotman; father and son Glen aka Frank and Vic Bernard; Trevon Philips and Esmond Martin all perished after the pit rapidly caved in from the top, covering the crew and their equipment.
