Dryer stack raised
The Chinese bauxite company, Bosai is working towards a September 2009 deadline set by the local Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the installation of a dust shield at the Linden bauxite plant to alleviate what residents of the mining community say has been a worsening problem.
Company official Peter Benny said that that the EPA had originally set a target date of the end of July next year for the installation of the dust shield as against a November deadline originally proposed by Bosai and that the end of September was a compromise date.
Benny said that in the interim Bosai had engaged critical stakeholders in the Linden community and had long notified them of the implications of increased bauxite production for dust emission. “We become concerned when it appears that we are being portrayed as uncaring since we have not only taken specific initiatives to help address the problem but have also received and implemented recommendations made by the community. He said that the company had undertaken to raise the stacks for both the calcined kiln and the dryer and that the latter, which he said was more important in terms of the dust nuisance, had already been raised.
Last week Chairman of the Interim Management Committee of the Linden Town Council Orrin Gordon told Stabroek Business that the dust emission problem had worsened in the wake of increased bauxite production by Bosai. Benny confirmed that this was the case but added that the increased levels of dust emission was also a function of the “fineness” of the ore currently being processed by the plant. “We expect that once we return to the processing of ore from our East Montgomery mines there will be some level of reduction in the dust emission,” Benny said.
Meanwhile, according to Benny, changing wind patterns in the mining town may also be partially responsible for the fact that the dust emission is affecting larger areas of the community. He said that this was one of the issues that would be studied by a Chinese technical team that visited Guyana earlier this year in connection with addressing the dust problem.
And according to Benny Bosai is prepared to give consideration to increasing its medical interventions and extending the intervention beyond its current location at One Mile, Wismar if the circumstances warrant such action. He said that since April this year the company had undertaken three interventions, the most recent in August this year and that more frequent interventions would depend on the demand for medical attention.
Benny, however, declined to commit Bosai to a recommendation made by Linden Town Council Chairman Gordon during a recent interview with Stabroek Business that the company fund the setting up of a facility for investigating and treating medical problems that might arise from the dust emission. He said that Bosai was concerned about putting in place mechanisms that would reduce the dust problem rather than in the creation of facilities that are premised on the assumption that the problem will persist.
According to Benny, apart from Bosai’s “acute awareness of the concerns of Linden residents,” the company was also concerned about reducing the dust problem in its own interest. “The high levels of dust emission mean that we are losing a higher percentage of our product. At the moment we are recovering about 40 per cent of our product and the introduction of the dust shield will mean that we will be able to trap more of the product,” Benny said.
