Before the flood, and according to company data, the Naica mine was the second largest lead mine in Mexico. In its last year of operations, it reached a capacity utilization of 74%. This prompted the company to try to restore operations. For six months there was work to pump the water at the hands of the workers, who were distributed in four six-hour shifts.
But Industrias Peñoles finally gave up, and reported that the operations of this mining unit were suspended “indefinitely” as of October 2015 due to “force majeure”.
With the stoppage of operations, the Collective Labor Agreement with the “Don Napoleón Gómez Sada” National Mining and Metallurgical Union was terminated, remaining in “good terms” for both parties, for which the collaborators were liquidated.
In its 2015 annual report, the company recognized an impairment loss on property, plant, equipment and inventories in Naica for a total of 455.8 million pesos.
The National Geographic Documentary
Since the closure of the mine, Naica has become a magnet for prying eyes. In 2017, NASA scientists discovered living microorganisms up to 50,000 years old in the crystals of the Naica caves, which apparently survived by feeding on sulfite, manganese or copper oxide.
Years before, in 2011, Naica attracted the cameras of National Geographic, which made a documentary showing images of selenite crystals up to 18 meters long and weighing 55 tons.
These crystals, also known as “moonstone” for their shiny surface, are found 300 meters below ground, “and to our knowledge, are the largest yet seen on the planet,” National Geographic said in a note. written press in 2018.
Despite the fact that the stones that the mine houses have the appearance of ice, the temperature of the place rose to 45 degrees Celsius, with a humidity of 80%, in such a way that the environment “would kill humans in less than 10 minutes,” he described. the American producer.
Miners ask AMLO to withdraw the Naica concession from Industrias Peñoles
In an effort to reactivate the operations of the mine, former Naica mining workers sought in 2019 “a rapprochement” with the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to ask him to withdraw the mining concession in Saucillo from Grupo Peñoles, arguing ” a series of irregularities in the management of the mine” and “attacks against the workers”.
The miners and residents of Naica say that there are proposals from Chinese and Canadian investors to exploit the deposit by installing the necessary pumping equipment.
In 1964, Peñoles acquired 51% of Compañía Fresnillo, owner of the mines of Fresnillo, in Zacatecas, and Naica, in Chihuahua. In 1996, Peñoles acquired the minority stake that the North American company AMAX had in Compañía Fresnillo, acquiring full control of the mining units.
While the future of the flooded Naica mine remains uncertain, another flood in a mine 780 kilometers away, in Sabinas Coahuila, keeps the community in suspense. Ten miners have been trapped since August 3, when a landslide caused a sinkhole to flood.