Latest update February 6th, 2025 7:27 AM
Guard drops dead after chasing pork-knockers off Australian controlled gold lands
Kaieteur News – A security guard employed with Australian mining company, Troy Resources Inc., dropped dead on Friday while he and his colleagues were reportedly chasing off local pork-knockers from gold lands his company rents for only G$1,000 per acre.
A processing Plant at the Karouni Gold Mines.
The gold lands that the guard was protecting at the time he collapsed are part of the company’s Karouni Gold Project located in the Region Seven district of Guyana.
The dead security guard has since been identified as Xenier Fraser, 36. According to a press release sent out last evening by the Ministry of Labour, it noted that an investigation has been launched to determine how Fraser died.
Kaieteur News was told that Fraser collapsed around 10:00hrs. that day, while on patrol duties with other security guards. Based on information received by this newspaper, he was still alive after he collapsed and his colleagues had rushed him back to the base.
From there he was placed in vehicle, which reportedly sped off to transport him to the Mahdia District Hospital but he died on the way. Kaieteur News learnt from persons who had reportedly seen when Fraser had collapsed that he and his colleagues were alerted that a group of pork-knockers described as ‘punters’ were illegally raiding the company’s lands.
They claimed that the security guards had spotted the men and headed in the direction they saw them. One of the eyewitness said that “while the security guards were running behind the punters, Fraser fell while crossing over a stream.”
The eyewitnesses said that ‘they thought he had fell and hit himself hard” but according to the Public Relations Officer of Troy Resources, Ajay Baksh, Fraser had collapsed while on patrol duties.
“He was on patrol duties and as we would say in local terms, ‘he tek in and collapse,” Baksh told Kaieteur News.
As it regards to whether or not Fraser was at the time chasing local pork-knockers from the company’s land, Baksh said that such information had not reached him. What he sure of, at the time he spoke to the press, was that Fraser was on patrol duties with other security guards.
However, he said that in any mining area there will always punters around illegally invading lands to work. These individuals make a living by hustling daily on gold lands, some with battels and others with metal detectors. On concessions controlled by small-scale miners, the pork-knockers would be allowed to “hustle” and should they find large amounts of gold, the small-scale miner would ask them to pay him/her a percentage.
On the other hand, hustling on concessions operated by large-scale mining companies is taking a big risk because it is considered to be illegal and the lands are heavily guarded. If they are caught they could be detained and charged.
The Karouni Gold Project lands from which the punters were reportedly being chased off is 100% controlled by Troy Resources and has been a profitable venture for the company since it commenced operations there in 2013.
Recently in May, the company had announced to its shareholders that it is realising an average of 2,200 ounces of gold from its operations this year.
It had noted too that it was successful in securing another lucrative concession 20 kilometers south of its present operations – in the gold rich Potaro locale because it had mined out its Hicks 4 and Spearpoint mining pits.
The Australian company had boasted that the new claim secured will increase its land holding to an area of approximately 3,000 hectares.
Troy Resources had even related to its shareholders that the recently secured claim adjacent to the Karouni Gold Project is “considered to be highly prospective for large-scale discovery.”
Despite securing new lands to mine, the company is still not closing off operations in its Hicks 4 and Spearpoint mining pits. Kaieteur News reported in July that Troy Resources is firing local workers in order for the expatriates to focus on underground mining there. This move was made known to this newspaper by a circular to employees signed by the mines’ General Manager, Colin Connors.
Meanwhile, it should be noted that during the past five years of Troy’s operation in Guyana, the country has only received US$85,000 in royalty while the company was granted US$35M in waivers on fuel imports and tax breaks.
Troy also benefits from similar concessions afforded to the principals for the Aurora Gold Mines—now Zijin Mining Group. The company also pays G$1,000 per acre of gold land just like Zijin Mining Group.
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