Photo by: Reuters
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian gold senior Goldcorp has stopped operations at its Los Filos mine, in southern Mexico's Guerrero state, after it was unable to negotiate a settlement to renew its land occupancy agreement that had expired on Monday.
The miner said it would continue with certain activities related to environmental safeguards and site security during the suspension.
At a market capitalisation of C$22.42-billion, Goldcorp is the world’s second largest gold miner by value.
The company said it continued to hold discussions with the local Carrizalillo Ejido representatives to resolve the situation with the goal of ensuring the long-term sustainability of operations amid a lower gold price environment and significantly higher Mexican tax obligations.
The Los Filos mine directly employs more than 2 600 people from the surrounding communities and about 10 000 secondary jobs as a result of the mine's presence in the region.
The Los Filos operation consists of two openpit mines – Los Filos and El Bermejal – and one underground mine. The openpit operation began commercial production in January 2008.
Los Filos was expected to produce between 330 000 oz and 345 000 oz of gold this year. The mine has compliant proven and probable reserves totalling 7.95-million ounces of yellow metal and 54.52-million ounces of silver.