Authorities are being urged to sensitise miners on safer mining practices, following the fatal cave-in of a mining pit at Mahdia, Region 8 on Tuesday.
Karan Roopnarine, 32, of Triumph, East Coast Demerara and Keith Hibbeizt, 32, a Jamaican national who resided at Long Creek, Linden Soesdyke Highway, were both pinned at the bottom of a deep pit after its walls caved in. Both men died. Residents at Mahdia told this newspaper that evening that it was raining at the time when the incident occurred, however, the family of the dead miners told Stabroek News Thursday that the weather conditions at the time did not contribute to their demise. A source within the industry told this newspaper that many miners have been engaged in unsafe practices during open pit mining. The source stated that there are specifications for the slopes and the depth which mining operators are expected comply with. According to the mining regulations, the depths of mining pits should not exceed 40 feet; the two miners were working in a pit that was 75-feet deep during the cave-in. Roopnarine’s relatives also said he was in a smaller pit within the open pit, some five feet further down the base of the main pit.
Sources within the industry have stated that there have been many isolated occasions in the past when miners would escape “sure death” as walls around the steep slopes of the pits caved- in. During a visit to the White Hole area last year, miners informed that there have been many such instances in that area, and one miner recalled an incident when he escaped death by scrambling up a hose .He stated that many mining operators would cry out after obtaining little or nothing from individual operations and as such the miners are tasked with digging deeper into the earth for gold.
Roopnarine’s widow, Nandranie Roopnarine, told Stabroek News that the authorities should implement “more strict” measures as regards mining in open pits. She stated that her husband’s death came as a shock to the family, which had on numerous occasions attempted to persuade him to enter another trade. The man had been mining for more than 10 years and had “tried his hand” previously as a fisherman and a carpenter. His widow stated that another miner, who visited her husband moments before he met his demise at White Hole on Tuesday, recalled an occasion in 2002 when he was “saved” by Roopnarine after a cave-in.
In the past, there have been several instances where miners met their demise as a result of the mining pits caving-in on them. Among these was the case of French geologist Guy Rigottier-Gois, a director of River Gold Guyana Inc, who died in the Konawaruk backdam on April 3 last year.
He may have thought he struck gold when he took the unusual decision to enter an excavated pit during heavy rainfall to take further samples, this newspaper was told at the time. Reports said that he was in the pit doing some testing when the soil around the pit, which was loose, caved-in.
He died after being trapped under the debris.
On July 3, 2008, miner Phillip France, 21, of Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo died shortly after a sandbank in the Mazaruni area collapsed, burying him in the pit where he had been working.
And on October 12, last year machine operator Leon Clarke, 59, of Hopetown Village, West Coast Berbice, died at his Mahdia worksite. Police said the man was operating an excavator in a 40-feet deep pit when it caved in and covered him. Employees at the site had told the man’s relatives that Clarke was operating the excavator when two rocks fell on him. The first he was able to move away with the excavator but shortly after a second rock fell and pinned him to the machine.
Meanwhile, Nandranie Roopnarine is now at the end of her wits about her family’s future, since her husband was the sole breadwinner. She said that the man spent “endless months” in the gold mining areas in order to support the family, which includes their two children, 10-year old Cammi and 2-year old Sarah. Anyone who may wish to assist the man’s family can contact his relatives on telephone numbers 220-6757 or 671-1940.
