Woman, 60, perishes as mining pit caves in

Aug 04, 2019 News

A 60-year-old woman reportedly perished Friday when a mining pit in the Locus Backdam collapsed, trapping her beneath mud and water for a considerable period.
Sources said that 60-year-old Retta Samuels, of One Mile Arakaka, North West District, Region One was liming in the company of friends at a mining pit owned by a 45-year-old gold miner when the incident occurred.
Reports suggest that the gold miner was ‘washing down’ his four-inch land dredge when the earth seemed to open, sucking in water and great mounds of mud and the now deceased woman with it.
Sources said her horrified screams rent the air as she went under. It was quite some time before public spirited citizens managed to locate her body beneath the debris.
Police sources revealed that the incident occurred between 15:30hrs and 16:00hrs . It is said she was found motionless and rushed to the Arakaka Health Centre where she was pronounced dead on arrival.
The body is presently at the Arakaka Health Centre Mortuary and arrangements are being made for it to be transported to the Port Kaituma Hospital Mortuary for a post mortem examination.
Last November, a 48-year-old woman perished. That woman was Elaine Figueira also of Arakaka, North West district. It was reported that the woman collected her sister’s battelle and cutlass and headed for a mining pit at Red Road Arakaka.
It is alleged that Figueira then entered a mining pit and was digging when a section of the pit collapsed and pinned her. She was pulled out from the pit by her daughter and taken to the Pakera Health Centre. She was pronounced dead on arrival.
At the end of October 2018, the Ministry of Natural Resources revealed that Region Eight had recorded 14 mining deaths for the year, most of them occurring at Mahdia.
The Guyana Geology and Mines Commission later launched a crackdown on illegal and unsafe operations.

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