Long-standing criticism of the effectiveness of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) in its role as the state oversight agency for the country’s gold-mining sector has been expanded by the conclusions of the recently released four-member investigative report into accidents in the mining sector.
Triggered largely by a recent pit cave in at the Mowasi mining site which resulted in the loss of 10 lives, the report alludes to what it says is the GGMC’s lack of “focus, capacity and/or strategy to ensure that (mining) operations are meeting their legal responsibilities under accepted health and safety laws and guidelines,”