Against the background of mounting concern over the increase in the number of site accidents and fatalities in the country’s mining sector, the Guyana Mining School and Training Centre Inc (GMSTC) has announced that its regime of training, beginning in January next year, will embrace occupational safety and health directly related to “predicting and monitoring the possible potential of a mining pit collapsing.”
This disclosure by the GMSTC comes in the wake of an increase in the frequency of pit cave-ins and loss of life at mining sites. These occurrences are widely believed to be the result, predominantly, of less than strict adherence to safe practices.
In May this year, the country suffered its worst ever tragedy in the gold-mining sector when ten persons lost their lives after a pit caved in the Potaro-Siparuni area. Blame for accidents such as this has been placed at the feet of various inexperienced mining site managers who are accused of