Mexican Town Fights Mine Giant

A Canadian company wants to begin extracting gold and silver from a mountain in Cerro de San Pedro.

1 minute read

December 14, 2004, 1:00 PM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen


"Five hundred years ago, Spanish conquistadors carved up the earth as they plundered the town's riches, sending most of the treasure back to Europe. Now Minera San Xavier (MSX), a subsidiary of Canada's Metallica Resources, wants to dig a crater 1,150 ft. deep and a half-mile wide to gain access to the 90,500 oz. of gold and 2.1 million oz. of silver the mountain could yield each year for the next decade. But this time the locals appear to be taming the outsiders, thanks to a savvy legal campaign and a new-found independence by the Mexican courts that was unheard of until recently."

Thanks to Chris Steins

Wednesday, October 26, 2005 in The Christian Science Monitor

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