EPA’s report on our compliance unduly delayed -Troy Resources

Apr 17, 2020 News

– Mining company rejects narrative that safety is not a high priority

Following reports of a fuel spill and most recently, a collapsed wall at the Karouni Mining pit, Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dr. Vincent Adams has told Kaieteur News that a rigourous operations audit is hanging over the head of Australian mining company, Troy Resources Inc.

EPA Head, Dr. Vincent Adams

According to the EPA Head, the “poor safety performance” of the company appears to indicate that production is of a higher priority to the company.
Troy Resources, on the other hand, is in total disagreement with this narrative, while reminding that it has won the national safety award from the Guyanese government, two years in a row (2018 and 2019).
Further to this, Troy disclosed that its records indicate that the last time the EPA was at the Karouni site was on March 17-20, where it facilitated two senior EPA Environmental officers, Collis Primo and Roger Simon, who identified no significant issues. It was also keen to note that the official report from the EPA regarding that compliance audit has been “unduly delayed.”
Speaking to the fuel spill that occurred at its Karouni mine, Troy recalled that indeed, the company, along with its subcontractor, Rubis Guyana Inc., was fined for the incident. It was keen to note, however, that the EPA was not aware that Rubis was actually the entity that was in the wrong.
Kaieteur News understands that it is Rubis that actually operates the fuel farm under contract to Troy, and is expected to provide the Aussie firm with needed maintenance service. Be that as it may, Troy said that it assumed the proper stance and immediately acted to rectify the fuel spill when it occurred, before it even received a letter from the EPA on how it should proceed.
The company told Kaieteur News that it took responsibility regarding measures to protect the environment and personnel, as it should, and immediately deployed an emergency response plan, which included retraining of the fuel farm operators.
In fact, Troy said that this was almost complete before the EPA letter arrived. “It is complete now, except for long term remediation,” the company said.
COLLAPSED WALL
With regard to the slippage on the North Wall of the Hicks Four Phase Two pit at Karouni which has caught the attention of the EPA Head, Troy Resources told Kaieteur News that this was a completely managed, risk-mitigated slippage that was identified by the Senior Mine Engineer on his daily pit safety inspection on April 9, last.
The company said that this is a required duty of the engineer in line with its philosophy of safe production.
Troy said, “Our actions which he initiated immediately upon noticing the crack, was to pull all workers and equipment away from the wall to make it safe. This area was flagged off to prevent any exposure to workers. We then immediately commenced a joint mine engineering and geology team to design a cutback remediation that was sent to our Geotechnical Engineering Advisors on Sunday the 12th for approval, where it is being evaluated at the moment with additional information required including hydro-geological groundwater information and diamond drill mapping.”
The Aussie firm added, “The wall sloughed, as predicted on the 12th in a fully managed and safe manner. Once the cut-back design around the fault zone is received, we will share it with the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission prior to recommencing mining, as always.”
Kaieteur News understands that Troy’s Karouni Project and the Rosebel Gold Mine in Suriname mine are in similar unique and complex geologic conditions. Both mines are in the same Guiana Shield that extends from Venezuela to the east of the Amazon.
Troy Resources explained that the mines face the same challenges, with rocks that are deeply weathered with saprolite and transition sap-rock extending to depths in excess of 70 metres. Pit wall stability is therefore a challenge due to highly faulted relict structures, groundwater, rainfall and protolith.