The Suicide Miners of Porgera; Giving Up Lives for Gold

If you have ever witnessed illegal miners in operation at the giant Porgera Gold Mine pit, you know that probability is against them.

They will get hurt. Some will die.

This is because of the way they work. They will wait at the top of the mine, hiding behind some of the large boulders that are stockpiled up at the corner (rim) of the pit. They will watch and wait.

Far below them, the PJV drillers and explosives people will mark the spots to blast with coloured ribbons. Red for high grade gold. Yellow for low grade. 

Once the explosives are set. The mine pit is cleared. A siren goes of atop the mountain. A siren that can be heard from kilometres away and even under the tunnels of the mine. Everything, people, vehilces, machines stop working as the blasting is about to happen.

But not everybody stops. For the illegal miners, the siren is like the yellow light at the traffic lights. They come out of the spots, adrenaline pumping, engines revving, ready to take off.

As the first blast happens, the illegal miners are off, hurtling down the steep walls of the mine. As the blasting continues they are still hurtling down, regardless of flying or loosing rocks. Its hard to see them, often dressed in very dark clothes, they really on stealth and speed to get to the blasting site undetected as fast as possible.

If they are spotted earlier, the blasting ceases. And mine security risk their own lives to drive down the mine and apprehend them early so that no one gets hurt by falling rock. This can halt production at the mine for up to an hour.

If they are not spotted, the illegal miners make it to the blasting spot and start collecting the loosened rock even as the blasting continues.

After they collect as much as they can carry, they hurtle back up the steep slopes. As the dust clears,  the security workers spot the illegal miners and rush to apprehend them. But these illegal’s know how to avoid the security. The road in the pit winds down from the top to the bottom centre. The illegal miners wait at each rung until the security cars pass over head before running up to the next rung and so forth.

When they reach the top, they had of into the bushes to ‘process’ their gold.

You can see why they play a dangerous game.

So when the news came that 5 illegal miners died on Saturday March 3^rd at PJV during a routine blast at an underground section of the mine, it was inevitable.

As the National newspaper wrote in an editorial on the incident:

“People who trespass on to mine property with the sole intention of gleaning over the debris for gold that is exposed in the broken rock know they are committing a crime but they continue to persist with this dangerous cat-and-mouse game.”

But its not just a dangerous game, it’s a deadly one. No one in their right mind runs into a blasting zone anywhere in the world. Except in Porgera.  And they do it in groups. They should call them illegal miners. They should call them suicide miners of Porgera.