Three miners die at Peru copper mine run by Toronto’s Sierra Metals

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Three miners who worked at a copper-zinc mine owned by Toronto-based Sierra Metals Inc. died due to a “mudslide incident” in Peru, the company said, bringing the total of worker deaths to four since January.

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One other miner was injured, the company said, as it temporarily suspended operations at its Yauricocha underground mine in western central Peru, in which it has an 82 per cent interest.  Mining will resume once conditions are “safe and appropriate,” Sierra said in a press release on Monday.

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The Toronto-headquartered company, which runs two other mines in Mexico, had also reported a death of a worker in January in its Bolivar mine in the Chihuahua state of Mexico.

“Safety is of the utmost importance for Sierra Metals. The tragic event in Mexico was thoroughly investigated and appropriate corrective action was taken,” Gabriel Gregori, a Sierra spokesperson, said. “We will be providing updates of this unfortunate incident (in Peru) as they become available.”

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Local authorities were investigating the incident, Sierra said.

Peru is the world’s second-largest producer of copper, the demand for which has increased in recent years as countries take steps towards decarbonization.

The deaths add to renewed attention to safety concerns in the region’s mining sector. In July, Chile’s state-owned Codelco temporarily halted construction of its mining projects after reporting two deaths. In addition, 10 Mexican coal miners, who have been trapped in a flooded mine in northern Mexico, since Aug. 3, are believed to be dead.

Sierra depends upon the Yauricocha mine for more than half of its revenue, but the company said it hasn’t yet “made an assessment” of how the temporary shutdown might impact its yearly goals.

The mine, which has been in production for over 70 years, produced about 5.1 million pounds of copper in the second quarter this year.

At 9:30 a.m. in Toronto, shares of Sierra Metals were trading at 65 cents, within a 52-week trading range of 52 cents and $3.57. The company has a market cap of $106.5 million.

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