The authorities must ensure this pontoon is out of the river

Sep 14, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
I am a concerned gold miner from Bartica, with a work force of over forty (40) persons currently. I am writing to highlight a situation that is happening with a pontoon that sunk in the channel of the Mazaruni River. Approximately three months ago a (Draga) as this pontoon is called, by owner of Crown Mining supplies, ran aground just at the top of the Piremap falls in the Mazaruni River. Initially it was out of the channel, but after efforts were made by Crown Mining Supplies to remove it from its position it shifted into the channel. That is when the problem started.
The Crown Mining Company would just leave it there for weeks and then they would make a half hearted effort to salvage it, then once again retreat and not be seen for a while. All the time workers and supply boats that work for, and service over fifty mining operations located above the falls, have to use whatever way they could to gain access to their mining camps, which includes manually fetching of supplies over rocky and dangerous terrain and in some cases in waist dept water just to survive. I am concerned about the non action by this company which seems to be above the law as they continue daily to totally disregard the inconvenience that their sloppiness in handling this situation, has caused to so many miners.
Let me also mention the operations of the two Jet boat services that service the locations have been completely halted, putting almost sixty workers out of a job and the Secondary School children that normally use the jet boat service to return to their school at Bartica are stuck.
I call on the relevant authorities, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Education, the Maritime administration, even the Ministry of Public Health (God forbid we get some sort of medical emergency) to please do something .One is being led to believe that because the main principal of Crown Mining supplies is a national sportsman and carries a lot of clout in the government and also the mining associations, they are being allowed to do as they feel. Once again I do hope this situation is looked at urgently by the relevant authorities.
G. Adams

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