Mexican mining chamber calls for end to strike at Newmont gold mine

Mexico’s Camimex mining chamber has called on the authorities to help end a strike at the country’s leading gold mine, Newmont Corp’s Penasquito project in northern Zacatecas state, it said in a statement on Monday.

“We call on the competent authorities to collaborate on finding a solution to the strike,” Camimex said in the statement, which also criticized what it described as a “generalized delay” in the granting of environmental permits for mining projects.

Located some 485 miles (780 km) north of Mexico City, Penasquito has been shuttered since June, when Newmont suspended operations after a strike was launched by the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers of the Mexican Republic, according to the company’s second-quarter earnings report.

During the quarter, the mine produced some 38,000 ounces of gold, down from 121,000 ounces in the same quarter last year.

Newmont has withdrawn its annual output guidance for the project. Last year Penasquito produced around 566,000 ounces of gold.

(By David Alire Garcia; Editing by Sarah Morland and Jan Harvey)