Romanex Guyana to assist small miners in mercury

Small scale miners are being afforded the use of machinery from Romanex Guyana to help increase their recovery rates in the Marudi Mountain mining area, Region Nine. Small miners raised the complaint that alluvial mining is not yielding production in the Marudi area when Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman and a team met with miners in Lethem on Saturday. One Marudi miner told the Minister that “the alluvial mining is not paying”. However, Romanex Guyana’s representative, Marshall Mintz, said the company has invested in machinery that aims to improve recovery rates. “The company has ordered mercuryfree gold drill…It’s the only way to recover gold from hard rock mining where you don’t use mercury,” Mintz told the miners. “We, small scale miners having amalgam sheet mats and what not, we would like to know how we can integrate into the system that he’s speaking about,” Leslie Kaladin, a small miner from Marudi questioned.

Mintz explained that the miners can use the machine once it is set up, for a minimal fee. “Miners will have access to it; we will run a workshop that trains them. We will teach you how to use this machinery here; it doesn’t use mercury,” Mintz told the miners. Romanex Guyana is setting up a box sampling programme in keeping with the mediation agreement which was brokered by the Ministry of Natural Resources between the Canadian company and small miners earlier this year.

(Kaieteurnews.com)