Man killed while hustling for gold alone

Sep 25, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – On Thursday, a miner was killed in an old gold mining pit at Sand Hill Backdam, Region Seven, after one of its walls collapsed on him. The man identified as Omar Oselmo, 37, of Kamwata, North West District (NWD), Region One, had reportedly returned to the old pit on his own just to make a late afternoon hustle but ended-up losing his life instead.

According to police, Oselmo met his demise around 18:00hrs. He was at the time working with a local mining company in the area and work had finished for the day. The man’s co-workers had all headed to camp, but Oselmo, a family man, decided to pick up his batel (a metal-pan like tool, used in panning for gold), and returned to the work ground just to hustle for a few grams of gold.

He reportedly went into an old gold pit located close to the one that the company is presently mining.

A few minutes later, his co-workers heard him screaming and then suddenly, there was silence. When they rushed to the work ground to see what was wrong, Oselmo was not seen. However, his co-workers noticed that one of the walls of the mining pits had collapsed and suspected that he might have been buried alive.

They began to dig through the sandy soil, and as suspected, they found Oselmo’s motionless body which they removed. The police were notified. Bartica police have since taken custody of the body and an investigation was launched.

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