ESG

Newmont restarting Peñasquito, again

Major restarting mine in Mexico after second blockade this year

Staff reporter
 Newmont Goldcorp is restarting Peñasquito in Mexico after the government assured ongoing access

Newmont Goldcorp is restarting Peñasquito in Mexico after the government assured ongoing access

The latest blockade had ended on October 8 but Newmont said at the time the operation would remain suspended pending evaluation of the situation and assurances the blockade would not resume.

Yesterday, the company said it had started a 10-day process of bringing the operation back to full production, with support from the state and federal governments and an ongoing police presence.

"We appreciate the government's efforts to uphold the law by assuring ongoing access to and from Peñasquito while continuing to sponsor the dialogue process, should that continue to be needed," president and CEO Tom Palmer said.

Newmont had resumed operations at Peñasquito in June after a months-long blockade over trucking contractor and water issues, but suspended it again on September 14 as the blockade returned.

The company reiterated yesterday Peñasquito had enhanced water availability for the mine's 25 neighbouring communities through projects including new wells and installing and operating a reverse osmosis water treatment plant at Cedros in 2018.

Newmont said earlier this month the blockade had impacted Peñasquito's third quarter production by about 11,000 ounces of gold, 1.7 million ounces of silver, 13.7 million pounds of lead and 22.8Mlb million pounds of zinc and was expected to impact the company's full-year results.

The openpit mine in Zacatecas state was among the Goldcorp assets Newmont acquired in the April merger which created the world's biggest gold producer.

The company separately declared a quarterly dividend of US14c per share.

Its shares closed down 0.4% in New York yesterday to US$37.80 but remain up 11.8% year-to-date.

It is capitalised about $31 billion.

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