A 47-year-old employee of Aurora Gold Mines (AGM) located in Region Seven died yesterday morning when the truck he was driving collided with another while descending a hill. It is reported that the other driver is in a stable condition.
Dead is Joseph Licorish of West Watooka, Wismar, Linden who was the driver of an AGM-owned dump truck, # TL-001. Also involved in the incident was dump truck # TL-19 also owned by Aurora Gold Mines, and driven by 41-year-old Nigel Denny of Georgetown, a police report stated.
Enquiries revealed that Licorish was descending a hill, with a full load of stone, in the vicinity of an open pit mining area, when his truck collided with Denny’s, which was proceeding up the hill, also carrying a full load of stone.
Denny reported that Licorish’s truck approached him at a fast rate and swerved into his lane. He reacted by swerving to his left to avoid a collision, but failed and collided with the oncoming truck, causing it to flip onto its side.
The collision resulted in both drivers sustaining injuries. The entire cabin of Licorish’s truck was dislodged, pinning him inside. Licorish was pulled out from the cabin by other workers, and along with Denny, was rushed to the Aurora Health Centre, where Licorish was pronounced dead on arrival.
Denny was air-dashed to Georgetown and treated for injuries to his head and body. His condition is listed as stable. The accident scene was covered by CCTV cameras and the footage will be reviewed and analyzed by investigators.
Minister of Labour, Joseph Hamilton, told the Sunday Stabroek yesterday that the incident was reported to the Ministry of Labour and both the ministry and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) will be investigating the incident.
“The incident was reported to us … and the company has mobilised our officers to move in. We along with GGMC are going to investigate the circumstances of the incident and our officers will be spending several days on the mining company ….”, he said.
Aurora Mines is owned by the Zijin Mining Group of China. (Subhana Shiwmangal)
