GGMC highlights porkknockers at exhibition

Sep 05, 2008 News

The Guyana Geology & Mines Commission (GGMC) on Tuesday opened a four-day Exhibition at the Guyana Girl Guides Association on Brickdam.
Under the theme “Celebrating the Contribution of the Porkknocker to the development of Guyana”, the exhibition continues to attract scores of individuals, particularly students from various secondary schools in around Georgetown.

At left, is a warishi with the tools of a porkknocker. Also in picture is a battel

The students are afforded special sessions, with daily lectures being facilitated by GGMC staff on the different aspects of mining in Guyana and of career opportunities available at the Commission.
The exhibition focuses on the different stages of mining development in the country from the year 1860 to present.
Prominently featured is the life and times of the early porkknockers.
Specimens of the ancient tools used by these pioneer prospectors are on display as well as mounted paintings of their operations as was commonly practiced in the ‘old days’. Among the artifacts on show is the popular Warishi, a straw-woven backpack used by the porkknocker to carry his tools and other essentials on his way to work. A Battel, a dish-like looking instrument used to ‘sift the gold sediments’ can also be seen.
Video clips featuring retired porkknockers, some of them now in their nineties can be seen, describing some of the difficulties they endured in their earlier exploits of their chosen profession.
But the exhibition is not limited to the production of gold and diamonds, it also brings to the attention of viewers other aspects of mining in Guyana. Included among these are the history and present day operations of the bauxite industry, quarry mining and even natural gas and oil exploration in Guyana.
The exhibition affords those attending a comprehensive view of the mining sector in the country by also providing updated statistics of mineral production.
With the introduction of the 1989 Mining Act, enforced in 1991, the mining industry was re-organised into three scales of mining; large-scale – with concessions of twenty thousand four hundred acres per licence, medium-scale, constituting twelve hundred acres per permit and small-scale claims of four hundred acres.
This Act also made provision for the category of river claims to come into force.
Mining today is carried out using highly mechanized machinery and tools, with the bigger companies even adapting to cyanide operations.
But for the year 2007, the medium and small-scale facilities still accounted for 64 percent of all mineral production with large operators contributing 32 percent. Quarries achieved the additional 4 percent.
The exhibition in the ‘tunnel’, a specially constructed horseshoe-shaped building on the lawns of the Girl Guides Association concludes today.