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Unregulated open pit mining leads to more tragedy

Mar 04, 2010 News

An open mining pit 75 feet deep in sandy soil permeated by water is an accident waiting to happen.
One day after  the tragedy at White Hole, the question is being asked: why was mining allowed in so deep a pit?
And knowledgeable persons close to the mining industry were also calling for the enforcement of the laws designed to minimize open pit slope failures as happened at  Mahdia and increase  occupational safety and  save  lives in the gold mining sector.
Mr Edward Shields, Executive Director of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA), said yesterday, “There is a law about the depth of a pit because the deeper the pit, the greater the risk of instability of the walls, or the slope, more so if it becomes permeated with water. What was anyone doing at the bottom of a pit 75 feet deep?”
He explained: “There are designs about the angles of slopes of open pits that should be used and adhered to but in their search for gold some people take risks or ignore risks. The law about authorized pit depths (not more than forty feet) and angles of the walls should be adhered to and enforced. There should be a thorough investigation of this accident and the laws about pit depths and angles of the slopes should be more effectively policed,” he said.
“Too many miners have been buried alive due to open pit slope failures.  If this review doesn’t happen more will die,” Mr. Shields said.
Rohan Hibbeizt,  a 35-year-old Jamaica called ‘Jamakey’ of Long Creek, Soesdyke/Linden, and 32-year-old Karran Roopnarine of Triumph, East Coast Demerara  were buried alive at around 13:00 hrs on Tuesday at White Hole Mahdia .
The men were at work at the bottom of the pit when the walls caved in on them.
The General Manager of the camp told Kaieteur News that five other crewmen were in the pit but they managed to scramble to safety.
Hibbeizt and Roopnarine were several feet lower than the other miners and couldn’t escape.
“The land loose… The stuff (earth) brace them into the wall…it came down so fast that they could not get out.  They were pinned under several tons of earth,” the General Manager said.
Another Mining Engineer who did not want to be identified agreed with Shields with respect to possible causes of the latest mining tragedy.
He said: “In very deep pits, trucks should be used to remove the excavated material away from the pit.”
This will mean that the slope of the walls will be far less than 90 per cent and the risk of failure and miners being buried alive would be minimized.”
What is happening at the moment, though, the Engineer continued, is that the miners are using excavators and placing the materials at the top of the slope, putting the slope under pressure.
Water permeating the slope adds to the risk of failure and the final ingredient for disaster is men at the bottom operating high-pressure water hoses unwittingly undermining the base of the slope.
That is when the world comes crashing down, he said.
With respect to the tragedy at White Hole, the General Manager of the camp and Police told Kaieteur News that rescuers, using a dredge, an excavator and a ‘jet hose’ took over two hours to dig out the bodies from earth that was as “high as a house”.
The Engineer, commenting on the tragedy, called on the authorities to ensure that the laws in relation to the authorized depths of open pits are adhered to.
Models, which indicate pit slope angle in relation to depth should be made more generally available and then enforced by the GGMC, he said.
He stressed: “Enforce open pit slope laws or tragedy will strike again.”

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