An East Coast Demerara father of two died on Saturday after a mining pit at Rock Creek, Puruni caved in while he was working in it.
Keon Wilson, 33, resided at 61 Ann’s Grove Housing Scheme. Stabroek News learnt that the Wilson along with others from the camp at Rock Creek, Cuyuni/Mazaruni were working when the incident occurred sometime around 4.30 pm. Wilson was pinned under the rubble of the cave-in.
According to his sister, Mona (only name given) around 5 pm on Saturday they received a phone call informing them that there was a cave-in and Wilson had been covered by the mud.
Rescuers began digging by hand in the area where they thought Wilson might have been buried.At around 10 pm, the sister explained an official from the company her brother was working with called and confirmed his death. His body is at the Bartica Hospital awaiting a post-mortem examination.
Mona told this newspaper that her brother had been a miner for eight years. She said that a month ago he returned to the interior and started working with a new firm.
She disclosed that her son also worked with the same company but returned on Friday.
According to the woman she gathered from her son that the working conditions are poor.
On assuming office, the APNU+AFC government had commissioned an inquiry into pit collapses and its findings were released.
The move came after 10 miners died in a pit collapse in May of last year at Konawaruk. Steps were to have been taken to avoid recurrences but deaths have continued.
In March of this year, the government ordered an independent inquiry into the death of Trentan Sebastion, 19, a pitman after a cave-in at Konawak, Mahdia.
Over the years the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission have been pressing for greater mines safety.
