Brazilian miners die in Guyana after pit collapses

Po­lice Fri­day said that two Brazil­ian gold min­ers died af­ter a min­ing pit col­lapsed at Chenapou, North Pakaraimas, in the spec­tac­u­lar Pakaraima Moun­tain Range in Re­gion 8, known for its dra­mat­ic table­top moun­tains.

The min­ers have been iden­ti­fied as Cleu­mi­ton Da Sil­va San­tos, 37, and 44-year old An­to­nio Fil­ho and the po­lice said that the in­ci­dent oc­curred on De­cem­ber 30, at “S” Bend Back­dam.

“Pre­lim­i­nary en­quiries re­vealed that the two de­ceased were work­ing in­side a min­ing pit when a quan­ti­ty of sand col­lapsed in­to the pit. While oth­er work­ers man­aged to es­cape, both men be­came trapped and were lat­er re­trieved mo­tion­less,” the Guyana Po­lice Force said in a state­ment.

It said that due to the re­mote lo­ca­tion, the bod­ies are cur­rent­ly at “S” Bend Back­dam and arrange­ments are be­ing made to trans­port them to the Mah­dia Dis­trict Hos­pi­tal where post-mortem ex­am­i­na­tions will be con­duct­ed.

Po­lice said that in­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.