Rival tin miners in Bolivia fight with dynamite

Violent clashes between vying factions of miners from Bolivia’s second largest tin mine have left one person dead and nine injured.

Reuters reports that the miners from the Colquiri tin mine threw rocks and sticks of dynamite at each other in the Bolivian capital of La Paz on Tuesday for over an hour.

According to witnesses thousands of independent miners stormed La Paz in the early afternoon and tossed dynamite at groups of unionized miners standing guard in front of the Miners’ Federation labor organization.

Unionized and independent miners have been fighting since the seizure of the mine from Swiss commodities giant Glencore (LSX:GLEN) in June by leftist president Evo Morales, with the dispute centering on who has the right to exploit the mine’s richest deposits.

The Morales government claimed that nationalization of the mine would enable it to quash disputes between both the mine owners and workers, as well as amongst the miners themselves.

The government has since failed to make good on its promise, with the ongoing violence reportedly costing the country’s mining sector $200,000 a day.

Unionized workers now demand that Morales expel independent miners from Colquiri, who are currently working on a section of the site in accordance with an agreement brokered by the government in June.

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