Simona Broomes is a woman who never allows someone else to fight her battles for her, but always ensures that she leads from the front. She believes that she has been targeted in various ways by those in authority, all of which came to a head in 2008 when she had her mining equipment and fuel seized resulting in indebtedness amounting to millions of dollars.
Now as the head of the Guyana Women’s Miners Organisation she wants to use her years in the struggle to motivate women working in the sector. She recalled pleading, begging and even insulting Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and Minister of Works Robeson Benn when the Guyana Geology & Mines Commission (GGMC) seized her equipment, because according to them she was about to mine in an area close to a creek. The seizure came even though she had a letter of approval from the commission authorizing her to mine in the area.
In the end Broomes was forced to move to the court which handed down an order in her favour that saw the return of her equipment. But more was in store for her, as she revealed to the Sunday Stabroek that 20 barrels of fuel were later seized by the Guyana Energy Authority (GEA) and never returned, even though she “ran back and forth for help.” All of this happened while she was unwell and was forced to seek medical treatment overseas, and Broomes feels that if she can still stand and speak today as a miner then no woman in the sector should allow anyone or any situation to force her out of mining.
Contacted on the matter Minister Benn he could not recall offhand the issue surrounding the seizing of the equipment, but in relation to the seizing of the fuel he acknowledged that he did intercede on Broomes’ behalf and was informed that the fuel had been disposed of. However, he said he was not told the reason and suggested that the GEA be contacted.
When contacted Head of the GEA Mahendra Sharma said the issue would have to be put to him in writing before he could answer.
Broomes in an emotional interview with this newspaper said she wanted to highlight some of the difficulties she had as a miner so her experience could encourage and motivate other women in the sector.
“Since the organisation has been launched, so many women with different problems… who are being frustrated and pushed around would approach me for assistance, and I end up having to take all of these different problems and battle with them, case to case,” Broomes said.
In most cases she cannot advise the women and allow them to take charge as they are so frustrated, and in many instances she has take them around and speak on their behalf.
“By highlighting some of the problems I hope that more women when they read would understand, and for me they are in a better position now…because they have the organisation to help them…”
Broomes is of the firm belief that some of the problems she faced were deliberately thrown at her because of her outspokenness, and many in authority may have felt she was against them, not understanding that it was because she needed help that she spoke out.
“I was in a place as an individual and a single woman, just with my family, being attacked left, right and centre and that has really destroyed my mining career big, big…” Broomes asserted.
Lottery
It all started when the GGMC held a lottery in the OMAI area and Broomes’s son had won a block. No information about the land was revealed before the lottery, and she said “hundreds of persons” who won the lottery mortgaged their homes and took loans to purchase equipment to go into the area thinking it was a fantastic opportunity to elevate themselves.
“But when we got in there some of the land was not mineralized at all; it was just good to plant pines. In fact one of the mines officers with us while we were walking and looking said ‘This is a pine area this is not a gold area.’”
According to Broomes some areas where they knew gold could be found were still in reserve and after a while many of the miners who were “trapped in there and getting frustrated and depressed” decided to move into the reserve area and work.
But they knew it was wrong and were also aware that they would have to face the consequences, and Broomes remembered a now deceased friend, Donna de Santos, in tears told her that she was ready to give up. However, Broomes told her that they should come together as miners and fight for their rights, and she started to write letters highlighting their plight to the authorities from then President Bharrat Jagdeo right down the chain of command.
Those letters were followed up by meetings after the GGMC had instructed them to cease work in the area.
At one time Prime Minister Hinds went overseas and Minister Benn was acting as the Minister of Mines, Broomes said, and they met with him and some of the women started to cry and the Minister promised to
discuss the matter with the Prime Minister and later visit the area to see what government could do to assist them. Benn later visited the area and looked at where they were working and decided that they would have to pay a penalty of $250,000 for working in the reserve area. Broomes said they later formed a committee of which she became chairperson and they were advised that no more persons should be added to the list of existing persons working in the reserve.
Later Prime Minister Hinds visited and according to Broomes there were some illegal shacks in the area which he condemned, and he told them that while they had to pay the fine they would be allowed to work for a short period of the time as the government attempted to facilitate the number of dredges which would have nowhere to work once they were removed from the reserve area.
Broomes and four other persons, including how now deceased friend Donna, were given approval by GGMC to work in a specific area. While she and De Santos took some time before they started working, Broomes said that other persons went to work immediately and they quickly finished their allotted slot.
It was one of those persons who later informed Broomes that plans were afoot to seize their equipment as the others had been told to remove their equipment from the area. She doubted this information, however, and even visited the GGMC office to verify it, only to be informed that they had to contact the commissions officers in the backdam. She was later told that the area where their dredges were was a “buffer zone area” which meant it was too close to the creek, and she immediately pointed out that the mines officer had given them permission to work the area.
Broomes went on another letter-writing campaign and was told by Prime Minister Hinds after some time that he was awaiting a report even as days turned into weeks and weeks to months.
“Bear with me I went into that area, got trapped financially, just took a brand new machine, have to pay for it, all the bills running up and I was not working,” she wrote.
In frustration she sought legal advice and her lawyer Nigel Hughes moved to the High Court where an order in her favour was made, but by this time the equipment had already been dismantled and was in Georgetown. She got back the equipment but now had to get money to take the equipment back into the interior even as she was forced to pay a guard to watch over what was left in the backdam.
And if that was not enough, as she was driving to the city to make arrangement to get her operation back up and running, Broomes said she suddenly lost feeling in her left side and only managed to stop the car before her sister who was with her took over the wheel. She could not walk without assistance and was told that she had to seek medical attention overseas.
Broomes said even as she fought her medical battle she had to continue to make arrangement to relocate her equipment – both that which was in Georgetown and that in the backdam – and she eventually managed to get this done after paying OMAI Gold Mines to bring it out on a pontoon.
Seized fuel
After that she borrowed some money and purchased twenty barrels of fuel to take into the backdam to get her operation up and running. But that was not to be as the truck was stopped at Number 50 by GEA officers who informed that the truck had to remain in Linden because it was night and they could not see properly.
“They checked the fuel the next morning and said one drum of fuel was not showing the right reading like the other nineteen drums, so they turn the truck back to Georgetown.”
They were informed that they had to see Sharma, and according to Broomes her husband took the receipt for the purchased fuel and the owner of the gas station also visited the office to verify that he had sold the fuel.
They were told that one barrel of fuel had been “tampered with” and an investigation had to be done.
“The truck and all the fuel now parked, I had no fuel or nothing to work, this is me paralysed… I want women out there to understand what are some of the realities that you have to go through sometimes,” Broomes said.
She asked Hughes to write the GEA a letter and said it was a “back and forth” situation between herself and the authorities even as she flew to Jamaica to see a specialist doctor only to be told surgery had to be done to rectify her situation. She had to go to the US for the operation and Broomes said three months later she was still awaiting the return of the fuel even though the truck had been returned.
On one of many visits to the Prime Minister’s office Broomes said he was not there and instead she met Minister Benn and it was in her presence that he called Sharma and she got the shock of her life when he informed the Minister that he had thrown away the fuel. In frustration Broomes said she was later granted an audience with Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon who after listening to her said he would have to investigate and get back to her, which was never done.
Months elapsed and Broomes said she got no proper answers in relation to her missing fuel even as she questioned what happened to her barrels which cost $11,000 for one at that time, and she said a high-ranking government official informed her that she could take the matter to the courts “and he wouldn’t hold it personal against me.”
“I said to him I would be making myself a bigger fool because we understand how the courts in Guyana operate, I can’t carry the government to court, and I can’t compete with them.”
Up to today Broomes said she got no satisfactory answers from the government or the GEA about her missing fuel, and she was forced to bear the losses. She believes that this was done to get her out of mining.
Broomes said she has continued in mining in spite of all the impediments she faced, and she is calling upon women in the sector to come together and ensure that their voices are heard and create and expand opportunities for women in the sector.
“For me my whole life and my experience in mining is a complete miracle. I could attest to that fact…and for me God is an excellent God and in spite of the millions of dollars I lost, I have been through my surgery and I am back on my feet again,” Broomes said, adding that she would continue to fight to remain in the mining sector as she “ha[s] to make money right there like everyone else.”
She admitted that at one time she wanted to quit, and she said this to Minister Benn one day when she “lashing out to him about his government,” and he encouraged her not to quit as mining was her life.
“And many days I would remember his advice and I would want to give the same advice to other women who are frustrated: don’t quit.”
