The four Brazilian miners who were killed when a mining pit caved and covered them at Arau Backdam, Eteringbang, on Thursday afternoon have been identified.
The dead miners were yesterday identified by police as Taigo Nunes Pinto, Ronaldo Da Silva Sousa, Joao Nelson Pinto Mands and Joao Gonsalves Martin. Jose Roberto Diaz, who was injured in the collapse, was being treated at a private city hospital up to yesterday.
In a release, the police said that the cave in occurred on Thursday at about 5:55pm, when the 30 to 40 feet deep cave they were working in caved in. The bodies were flown from the area to the Ogle airport on Friday evening and are currently at the Lyken Funeral Parlour awaiting post-mortem examinations.
Contacted, Commissioner of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission Rickford Vieira said that the closest person the agency has in the area is about 80 to 100 miles away and it will take them a day or two before they get there.
Meanwhile, Minister of Natural Resources Robert Persaud told Stabroek News that he has asked GGMC for a full report into the matter. Persaud declined to comment because he said that it has to be determined whether the operation has been registered.
Over the years, many miners have lost their lives while working in the pits. Authorities have been urged to sensitise miners on safer mining practices. In many cases, miners are not clad in safety gear.
This is the fourth collapsed mining pit tragedy that has claimed a life for the year. In April, sixteen-year-old Dennis Anthony Barker died after a mining pit caved at Pamela, Mahdia, while Scotland Pluck, twenty years was injured. The young men were mining in a small area when the pit caved in due to a lack of support and broke Barker’s neck. Other pork knockers in the vicinity had rushed to help dig the men out form the pit, but it was too late for Barker.
