Even as Cabinet said it was distressed at the `unconscionable’ termination of hundreds of employees, Troy Resources Guyana Inc remains hopeful of restarting operations within the next month and reemploying a significant number of those workers dismissed yesterday, according to Managing Director Ken Nilsson.
Nilsson told Stabroek News that while the dismissed employees will receive a severance package, including “a month’s pay in lieu of notice,” he hopes to secure the relevant financial backing to restart operations within two weeks.
“I’m travelling to London to meet some of our investors to possibly secure about US$5 million,” he said, before adding that if he can’t secure this sum in the coming week he will “get it by other means.”
Severance payouts to be received by the more than 300 dismissed employees of the Australian model will include “salaries, wages and redundancies” and equal close to US$1 million and Nilsson is hopeful that gradual reemployment will begin in December, with the company reemploying a “full complement sometime in January.”
Nilsson lamented that while the company has money in various forms, it lacks liquidity, a situation which was exacerbated by the recent six-week closure.
He explained that before its closure the company was making in one month just over the US$5 million needed to stay afloat, the excess of which was being used to service debt.
He reminded that des-pite its limited operations, the company continues to employ 137 persons. He also suggested that he has been the victim of an uneven political playing field. “The minister’s response [a cease order] seemed more of a political agenda. It’s not a level playing field,” he stressed, while adding that a statement issued by government has also misrepresented the matter.
The statement referred to was issued by Cabinet yesterday and saw government declare the dismissals “as drastic and unconscionable.”
A statement issued by government yesterday declared that Cabinet was “most distressed by the action taken by Troy Resources” and noted that the action not only came as the world heads into the Christmas season but also “without reasonable notice being given to the workers, their union or the ministries of Social Protection and Natural Resources.”
Nilsson, however, argued that the laws of Guyana only provide for a “stand down of workers for six weeks” after which the company has two choices: either reinstate workers with full payment or dismiss them.
He stressed that currently Troy Resources lacks the funds for reinstatement and therefore decided to dismiss the workers.
Government has called on the company to take all measures to ensure that its action does not bring further distress to workers and their families and Cabinet has appointed a sub-committee to further examine this matter and engage Troy Resources with a view to reactivating its mining operations expeditiously.
“Cabinet empathises with the affected workers and assures each of them that it will take steps to protect their rights and to bring redress in the shortest possible time,” the statement concluded.
Operations at the company came to a halt after it was issued with a cease order on October 10th by Minister in the Ministry of Social Protection with responsibility for Labour Keith Scott following the death of geologist Ryan Taylor.
Taylor died on October 8th while working on the construction of a “bench” in a mining pit. A slippage occurred, which led to him falling and being covered by the rubble. The report on that death has not yet been concluded by the government and the company has said that while it has done its own, it will await the government’s findings.
Five days later Minister of Social Protection Amna Ally rescinded the order but Troy suspended operations after what it said was the knee-jerk reaction by Scott.
In a statement on the same day, the company had said that the cease order came as a surprise since the ban included all mining areas rather than isolating the area where the incident occurred.
It argued 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 Exten-sion 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.
While the stop order precipitated the current issues, Nilsson has acknowledged that the company has been in trouble for months.
“Over the last six months the company has struggled because of very poor developments and we need to get some of our resources back into production. If I was the way most people are, I would have terminated about 100 persons about three months ago. I chose to keep them on and paid the penalty; paying wages to people who were not really working. Everybody that works here knows this. Every-body was expecting to get laid off but I didn’t do that,” he told reporters during a tour of its Karouni mine in Cuyuni/Mazaruni last week.
In 2013, the company bought the Karouni project from another Australian company, Azimuth Resources Ltd, and had been operating it since.
Troy’s third quarter 2019 gold production figure was the lowest in recent quarters, according to the company’s report. The output for the June 2019 quarter was 11,567 ounces, for the March, 2019 quarter 13,333 ounces and 14,227 for the quarter ended December, 2018. The third quarter of 2019 gold output was 10,042 ounces.
Gold sold for the last quarter was also sharply down. The Troy figures showed that gold sold by the company amounted to 8,783 ounces compared to 12,545 ounces in the preceding quarter. For the quarter just ended, Troy’s All-In Sustaining Cost (AISC) was US$1,374 per ounce while the gold price realized was US$1,465 per ounce.
