-as mining pit dike being extended to guard against flooding
Guyana Goldfields Inc is currently building a new 2,000-metre airstrip at the Aurora Gold Mine (AGM) on the Cuyuni River to replace the one in use as the dike of the mining pit is being extended to include a section of the current runway.
The extension of the dike is to guard against “a thousand-year (flood) event” says AGM General Manager, Operations Vic Rozon. He was speaking on Wednesday during a tour of the operations by Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman and Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Jaipaul Sharma.
Technical officer in the Ministry of Natural Resources Euliene Watson said that Omai Gold Mines Limited had given assurances but the toxic cyanide spill that entered the Essequibo River when the banks of the tailings pond broke in 1995 was destructive.
“We may not be talking cyanide as happened with Omai but a failure in the dike in the rainy season,” she said, is a matter of concern.
The extension of the dike, he said, will not affect the revetment to the river nor will the river be diverted.
Rozon also answered questions from Trotman and Sharma after they were given a tour on Wednesday, of the mining pit which is about a mile deep and going deeper as the operations transition to the underground.
Noting that the Cuyuni River is one of the most polluted rivers in Guyana affected by mining, Trotman said, “We would not want it to be affected in any other way.”
In October last year, Rozon said, it was a rare occasion when the river rose and part of the airstrip was flooded. Apart