With Minister of Social Protection Amna Ally rescinding a cease work order issued to Australian gold mining company Troy Resources, the way has been paved for the company to restart operations at Karouni, Region Seven, which will likely be by early November.
Ally on Tuesday rescinded a cease work order issued on October 10 by Junior Social Protection Minister Keith Scott, who has responsibility for labour, which triggered a shutdown of the company’s operations and the laying off of hundreds.
While the order came in the wake of a death at the site, the company was critical of Scott’s action, claiming that the stop order was inconsistent with normal protocol in such situations. Normal protocol, it argued, is to cordon off the area of the incident, being the Hicks 1 Extension Trench, a process the company had already undertaken immediately after the death. Having taken this action, Troy expressed surprise at the cease order, which covered all mining areas including the Smarts 3 and Larkin Pits, which are not where the fatal accident occurred.
Sources told Stabroek News that the company petitioned government for a reprieve after explaining that a cease order would mean that its entire operations had to be halted.
They also noted that the early November restart timeframe takes into consideration that it would take a minimum of one week to restart the company’s processing plant.
Since all of the company’s 300 employees at the location had been flown out to Georgetown, the company would also have to be given time to get them back to the site to start processing and mining.
This newspaper has been seeking a comment from Ally since Wednesday but continuous calls to her mobile phone have gone unanswered.
Establishing contact with Troy Resources President Ken Nielsen was also tried but staff at the company’s Prashad Nagar office informed that he was unavailable and took the numbers for a return call.
However, up to press time, no one from the company had called.
In a statement on Tuesday, Troy Resources explained that following the death of geologist Ryan Taylor at the site, Scott issued a stop order directing “that there be a cessation of all mining activities with immediate effect until further notice from [the] Ministry.”
This order was issued before the completion of investigations which had been launched by the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), the Guyana Police Force, the Ministry of Social Protection and the company itself.
It was after receiving that letter that the company announced a suspension of its operations.
The move by the company appeared to have taken the government by surprise and it is still unclear if the action by Scott was sanctioned by his senior minister or if he notified her.
The action saw hundreds being placed temporarily out of work even as the company raised concerns about the restart of its mining and the viability of operations at a key section of its mine site.
Some employees complained bitterly about the actions by the company, saying that it was without warning that they were told of the layoffs.
Employees up to yesterday said that they had not yet been contacted by the company on the way forward but understood that they would not be paid for the period they are laid off.
The company maintained that “employees are not dismissed and can resume their normal duties if, or when activities on-site are able to resume” but had said that under Guyanese Law, a company is permitted to stand down the workforce without pay for up to six weeks in certain cases.
“Troy will not reinstate any of the laid-off employees nor recommence mining and processing activities until such time as the Company has clear approvals from all relevant government agencies,” they said.
Notably, the company said that Scott possibly “chose to act as a knee-jerk reaction in response to extensive false and misleading information being circulated on social media by various groups and individuals concerning the accident and the safety record of the Company generally.”
The company maintained that Troy, and its Directors, management and supervisors are strongly committed to the long-term health and safety of all its employees and that the company provides significant occupational health and safety training, both at induction and on an ongoing basis at Karouni.
Taylor, 33, a geologist died on Tuesday morning after a cave where he was working collapsed. The Guyana Geology and Mines Commission has been instructed to carry out a thorough investigation.
