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Mexico City, Apr 12 (EFE).- Mining companies negotiate with the drug cartels operating in their areas, making arrangements for exploration projects, Mexican Association of Mining, Metallurgical and Geological Engineers, or AIMMGM, president Manuel Reyes said.
“We ask the mafia for permission, the organized crime groups, and we are able to (operate). Things get resolved because there are negotiations by the companies,” Reyes told the Reforma newspaper.
The presence in mining areas since November of the National Gendarmerie, a division of the Federal Police, has not led to “substantial” improvement, the AIMMGM president said.
“There has been some progress from the standpoint of the kidnappings and extortion, but not so much in relation to robberies. Robberies of minerals, equipment, of trucks, of tools and everything having to do with industrial mining,” Reyes said.
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s mining committee, meanwhile, said mineral heists, extortion rackets and kidnappings of personnel were making Mexico less attractive as an investment destination.
“Of course, an incident like the one on Tuesday influences investment decisions” in the mining industry, the business group said.
Canada’s McEwen Mining said Wednesday that some 7,000 ounces of gold worth $8.5 million were stolen in an armed robbery at its El Gallo 1 mine in the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa.
“The cartels are active in that area and we have generally had good relations with them,” McEwen Mining CEO Rob McEwen told Canada’s Business News Network on Thursday.
The mining company “asks” the cartels when it can “go explore” in the region, McEwen said.
Mining companies operating in Mexico spent $41.8 million on security last year, the Mexican Mining Association, or Camimex, said. EFE



