A 55-year-old man, who was employed as a maintenance worker at Hard Rock Mining Company, was on Tuesday crushed to death by a 200lb rock at Puruni Mines, Region Seven (Cuyuni Mazaruni).
Dead is Jose Cicero Ferreira Perera, a Brazilian national.
According to police information, the man and a colleague were working at the top of the shaft section of an underground tunnel which was about 80ft beneath the earth’s surface.
The duo was pumping out water when the “marrack pump” broke; as a result, Perera was lowered into the tunnel by a remote winch and he proceeded to clear the marrack hole.
The colleague claimed that after fifteen minutes had elapsed and the Perera did not signal to be winched up, he sounded the alarm and called out for the man, but got no response.
As such, he raised an alarm and notified the site’s manager who was then lowered into the tunnel.
There, the Brazilian national was found lying face-down in an unconscious state with a rock weighing in excess of 200lbs resting on his head.
He was brought to the top of the tunnel where he subsequently succumbed.
The body was then escorted to the Bartica Regional Hospital. A postmortem examination will be conducted as investigations continue.
