Three of the seven bodies pulled from Sunday’s horrific mining accident at Konawaruk, Region Eight have been identified while the search for three others continue as questions grow over safety standards in the industry.
Intermittent rain continues to hamper the recovery of the remaining miners still trapped after the catastrophe at Pepper Creek, Potaro/Siparuni, the highest death toll in a mining accident for decades.
Family members of Michael Gardener, 26 years; Brian Brittlebank, 46 years of Wismar, Linden and Raymond August, 17 years of Dartmouth, Essequibo are in mourning after they identified the bodies early yesterday morning in Georgetown.
Lubina Greene said that her baby brother Raymond began working in the interior after their grandmother passed away in 2009. She said that the family of five had lost their mother in 1999 and had to endure hardships but when they lost their grandmother Raymond went to work in the interior at the tender age of 11.
An overwhelmed Greene stated that while her brother has been identified, a part of her is still holding out that her children’s father, Esmond Martin of Goed Intention, West Bank Demerara will be found. The young woman said that on Sunday her brother, Regan Greene one of the survivors of the pit collapse, had made contact with his girlfriend to say that he was OK. At that point Greene said she tried to make contact with the operator of the site, Imran Khan.
Greene said that she was relieved when she found out that her cousin, Alix Green, had also survived the cave-in while she anxiously awaited news on Raymond and Esmond.
Greene told Stabroek News that her brother was a plainspoken young man who enjoyed playing jokes and pulling pranks. She smiled when she spoke of him but when she recalled having to identify his body she became quiet noting that he was almost unrecognizable.
“As soon as I saw my brother I didn’t even know, I didn’t even know. It was awful to look at him like that,” Greene lamented. She said that the bodies were in various stages of decomposition and were bloated, making it hard to identify but she knew her brother.
She said that getting information was difficult because of the location of the mining operation. Greene said that Khan and his brother had been trying their best to relay information to the families of the deceased. She said that Esmond had a good relationship with the Khans and he had been working with them for over two years and had gotten jobs for her two brothers and her cousin.
Greene said that she has already begun making arrangements for Raymond’s funeral on Friday as his post-mortem will be completed today.
Gardener’s brother, Randolph Wilson said that the bodies were so badly damaged that he had to identify Gardener by his toes. He said that Gardener was the youngest of five children and he had started working with Khan in January, however Gardener has worked at various camps for the past two years.
Brittlebank’s sister, Nalini Barker spoke with Stabroek News after identifying her brother’s body. She expressed Greene’s sentiments noting that “his face was so badly damaged. He was really thin, he was always really thin, you had to look at everything and I knew he was missing a few of his front teeth.”
She had flown into the country from New York after being told by her sister Sharron Bacchus that Brittlebank was involved in a mining cave-in. She said that her brother was a seasoned miner who had been working in the back dam for over 30 years since he was a teenager. She compared her brother to a free spirit who at 46 years would go back and forth from the family home in Linden to various mining camps.
Barker told Stabroek News she was appalled after seeing the working conditions of the men in the photographs. She said that her brother was a seasoned miner but after seeing the conditions he was working under at the Pepper Creek site she was very saddened.
Four bodies that were retrieved from the pit have yet to be identified, of that number two were being transported to Georgetown yesterday after being retrieved.
The manager of the site, Leland Jones and his nephew Jason Trotman, father and son Vick and Frank Bernard, Trevon Philips and Esmond Martin are the men that are still missing.
Seven of the workers survived the cave-in with non-life threatening injuries. Shawn Xavier, 24, of the East Coast Demerara, said he was the most “banged up” with head trauma but noted that he was feeling better when Stabroek News spoke with him on Monday.
Sheldon Adams, 32, of Bee Hive, East Coast Demerara, said he was treated for a large gash on his right foot, which required nine stitches. He said that the rescued men all suffered trauma to various parts of their bodies but noted that they were lucky to be alive.
Regan Greene, 34, of the Essequibo Coast, said he foresaw his neck pain being a chronic issue. He said he was thankful that he along with his cousin, Alix Green, 28, were alive.
The other three men who spoke to Stabroek News were Henry Xavier from the North Pakaraimas, Roswell Andrews, 49, from the Rupununi, and Collymore Lewis, from the Cuyuni-Mazaruni region.
Stabroek News was told that the General Manager of the operation was warned by a worker that the pit had a crack and that the heavy rainfall made the risk of it collapsing very real.
A worker also said that from Sunday morning as heavy rains came the pit started cracking and this was brought to the attention of the manager by another young man. He that it was when they returned to the pit after lunch that it rapidly caved in from the top, covering the crew and their equipment.
Meanwhile, the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association said that the mining cave-in was due to criminal negligence on the part of the operator.
According to a report by the GGDMA, the mining face and pit walls were too high and too steep, almost vertical in places; the operation was too close to the face and walls. It noted that the walls were some 90 to 100 feet with no stepping.
With the rain and with water jetting from two dredges, the ground became very saturated and the soil unconsolidated. As a result, there was general slump failure. The cave-in happened quickly, burying 10 of the workers and the equipment.
Porridge
The surrounding material became very fluid which was described by the GGDMA as having the consistency of porridge and slid into the lowest parts of the pit where the men were working. The report continued that it was a fatal combination of circumstances.
According to the GGDMA there needs to be a greater combined effort with the GGMC to raise awareness for miner education on unsafe practices.
Likely Natural Resources Minister Dr Rupert Roopnaraine had told Stabroek News on Monday after visiting the site of the collapse that “very little attention is being paid to the Mining Act which has led to this incident…I can only speak about this particular block but it was a very haphazard way of excavating a mine.”
He said that education, adherence to the law and greater enforcement remained challenging, but were necessary components to see greater accountability in the sector.
Meanwhile, the Guyana Women Miners’ Organization’s (GWMO) president blames the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission’s “negligence” for the pit cave-in.
In an interview with this newspaper yesterday, Simona Broomes contended that the incident could have been avoided if miners and operators were educated more on safety regulations and precautions. “I asked the operator if he knew how to shelf a pit and he said `Ms. Broomes, I don’t know’”, Broomes said, as she explained that according to the operator, GGMC personnel would visit the area frequently and never make any citation or point out that the pit was hazardous. The GGMC has stated that an injunction prevented it from acting against this mine even though transgressions were seen. (See other story on page 10.)
Broomes declared that she was speaking as a member of the GWMO and as a miner as she explained that the safety of ground workers is often neglected.
“Men are treated like MacGyvers (having to invent solutions) – animals – and they allow that because they treat themselves like that too. They ignore danger and focus on making money for their family back home”, Broomes stated, as she explained that the GWMO has pleaded with the ministries for there to be educational workshops for miners and operators that would address safety regulations and precautions that could assist heavily in preventing any future incidents. Broomes further explained that the GWMO is willing to work along with the new government and GGMC to improve the safety and education of miners and operators.
“It’s not because ten men died, not even one should be dead in a year because of negligence”, Broomes stated, arguing that the GGMC has failed miners again as they have neglected to fully assist in making sure that miners are safe. She referred to a badly damaged bridge and road that the miners would have had to traverse to get to the area.
Broomes expressed her satisfaction with the new government for sending out senior executive Rupert Roopnaraine to the area. She further pointed out that there was a lot of support coming from women from the area and the operator and family members. (Additional reporting by Dhanash Ramroop)
