Non-mercury mining, enhanced gold recovery among priority mining school courses this year

Mercury-free mining techniques in the gold mining sector include work with the Knelsson Concentrator

The challenges to the country’s gold mining industry arising out of a drop in the price of gold and pressures to mitigate the environmental hazards linked to the use of mercury appear to be priority areas in the Guyana Mining School and Training Centre’s efforts to deliver an intensive regime of training for the country’s miners this year.

Stabroek Business has seen a schedule of training which the school plans to deliver this year and it includes the application of non-mercury gold recovery systems in the sector and improving the performance of sluice box operations. Both of these courses point to a seeming determination on the part of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) to continue to reduce mercury pollution in the country’s gold-bearing areas.

This year’s list of 12 priority training areas outlined in a document released to this newspaper by the Mining School’s Administrative Coordinator John Applewhite-Hercules also lists courses in the planning of ‘Small Mine Operations’ and introductory, intermediate and advanced level training of prospectors for the industry and mine reclamation. This provides an