Sacked Troy Resources Guyana Inc workers have been paid their severance and the firm’s Executive Director Ken Nilsson says that a decision on the gold mining company’s future is expected to be made after tomorrow following talks with potential investors.
Nilsson told Stabroek News that the laid off workers received their severance during the course of last week. He noted that out of 227 ex-employees, 220 collected their monies. The seven remaining persons are still in the interior.
“Our workers were paid and all collected except seven. They are still in the interior and will collect their pay when they come out. I am happy to say that they were happy with the sum they received,” Nilsson told this newspaper last week. He added that they have spoken with the former employees and they are all keen on returning when operations restart.
According to Nilsson, talks with prospective investors are expected to conclude by tomorrow after which they will make a decision on the way forward.
On November 19th, employees of Troy were notified of their dismissals following a decision by the board of the Australian company. In September, the company had 450 employees. It suspended more than 300 on October 15th, while keeping 137 on for exploratory operations.
Operations at the company came to a halt after it was issued with a cease order on October 10th by Minister in the Ministry of Social Protection with responsibility for Labour Keith Scott following the death of geologist Ryan Taylor.
Taylor died on October 8th while working on the construction of a “bench” in a mining pit. A slippage occurred, which led to him falling and being covered by the rubble. The report on that death has not yet been concluded by the government and the company has said that while it has done its own, it will await the government’s findings.
On October 15th, Minister of Social Protection Amna Ally rescinded the order but Troy suspended operations after what it said was the knee-jerk reaction by Scott.
In a statement on the same day, the company had said that the cease order came as a surprise since the ban included all mining areas rather than isolating the area where the incident occurred. It argued that the stop order was inconsistent with normal protocol in such situations.
Nilsson had said that while the company has money in various forms, it lacks liquidity, a situation which was exacerbated by the six-week closure. He had noted that the laws of Guyana only provide for a “stand down of workers for six weeks” after which the company has two choices: either reinstate workers with full payment or dismiss them.
The Troy executive had indicated that currently the company lacks the funds for reinstatement and therefore decided to dismiss the workers. He had added that he remains hopeful of restarting operations this month and reemploying a significant number of the dismissed workers.
