Training recommended for sandpit operators

Sandpit operators could, for the first time ever, receive formal training in regard to setting up safe operations and calculating quantities of material extracted, among other things.

Sandpit operators and licence holders meeting with Minister Simona Broomes and Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) officials

This training would come from the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) as part of reforming quarrying operations.
Minister within the Natural Resources Ministry, Simona Broomes, has said she would be speaking with the GGMC Commissioner to facilitate the training.
This training was among the issues discussed on Tuesday at the Ministry of Natural Resources’ Duke Street offices between the minister, sandpit operators, holders of licences, and officials of the GGMC.
“I’m going to recommend that when we go on site at these pits, the [GGMC] officers talk to the persons on the ground, (explaining) what we are measuring and doing; so, even practically, on the ground, they can start to have some training in that regard,” Minister Broomes is quoted by the Department of Public Information as saying.
The meeting is a follow-up to visits the minister made to sandpits along the Soesdyke/Linden Highway. She is leading efforts to ensure greater compliance with professional standards in the quarrying sector, and is also seeking to have paid all outstanding royalties which are owed to the GGMC.
The GGMC is mulling reintroducing a monthly payment system, according to Acting Mines Manager Krishna Ramdass.
Ramdass explained that the GGMC sold payment books to operators, “and they would use slips… What that really did was to, at the end of the month, redeem that book to GGMC and pay off that royalty”.
Many of the quarry operators the minister met with agreed to work with the Natural Resources Ministry (MNRE) to ensure greater compliance with regulations in their operations. There is also a proposal for the MNRE and GGMC to meet with operators on a regular basis.
Inspections done to sand and loam pits are to gather a “comprehensive overlook” of the sector as part of efforts towards ensuring the GGMC is better equipped to monitor, enforce, and recover costs in the quarrying sector, it was explained.