RE: Tragic in Peru2 killed in $1.2M Peruvian mining raid
By: Dorothy Kosich
Posted: '25-JUL-05 03:00' GMT © Mineweb 1997-2004
RENO--(Mineweb.com) Lima-based Aruntani SAC has beefed up security after 15 heavily-armed men killed two guards and wounded another during a daring robbery of Minera Aruntani gold operation near the community of Tucari.
During the robbery, the gang took 30 bars of gold and silver dore, valued at $1.2-million, and also kidnapped Mine Superintendent Luis Pineo and the chief of security. The two men was subsequently released.
align="justify">The private company Aruntani SAC opened Minera Aruntani in 2002 after developing the $25-million project over a number of years. The project is comprised of the Santa Rosa and Tucari mines, which includes estimated reserves of 2 million ounces of gold. The open-pit operation--which is located in the southern Andes in the district of San Cristobal in the Province of Maricsal Nieto en Moquegua, near the border with the Puno Region--is considered one of Peru's most exciting gold projects.
The operation was expected to yield 250,000 ounces of gold this year. Aruntani SAC is Peru's tenth-largest gold producer.
The hooded gunmen shot security guards, drove three small trucks into the mine and to the warehouse, where they took several gold dore ingots, weighing 13 kilos each. They also took three computers that contained refinery information, two small trucks, two shotguns, a rifle, and mobile radios, in addition to taking the two hostages.
The dead were identified as Jacinto Castillo Perez, 28, and Narciso Catacora Fuentes, 26. A third security guard, Manual Sucari Pari, 33, was recuperating after surgery for bullet wounds in the Manuel Nunez Regional Hospital in Puno. Provincial Prosecutor Johan Santiago Duenas ordered forensic autopsies. The hostages were freed by the robbers several hours later on a highway.
National Police investigators recovered a Toyota light truck, which is believed to have been used by the gang during the mine robbery.
Aruntani is the 10th largest Peruvian gold producer and is the largest private gold producer in southern Peru. The company is considered to have an expertise in the design, construction and operation of heap leach gold mines in Peru. Colorado School of Mines graduate Guido Del Castillo is the Executive Officer and major shareholder of Aruntani.
Last April, Aruntani SAC formed a partnership with Toronto-based mineral exploration junior Sulliden for Sulliden to acquire 50% of the Torrine gold project, which is located 18 kilometers northeast of Aruntani's Santa Rosa and Tucari mines. Aruntani's land holdings in southern Peru are estimated at 75,000 hectares. In a news release published last October, Jacques Trottier declared that the Aruntani system is on its way to becoming southern Peru's largest gold district and we believe there is excellent potential to discover similar deposits in this prolific system."
The Peruvian company has also announced it intends to develop the Arasi gold deposit (formerly Las Rescatada) in the Ocuviri District in the Province of Lampa, also in the Puno Region. The development of Arasi adds to the high sulphidation gold-bearing region located in Puno, which includes Aruntani's Santa Rose and Tucari, and a deposit being explored by Vancouver junior NDT Ventures deposit.
Peruvian officials expressed concern about the raid because it was so well-organized. The Puno Region is viewed as a poor region, which includes a number of indigenous groups, which has seen increased social unrest in recent years. It is divided into 13 provinces. Aymara Indians have risen up against allegedly corrupt municipal officials in the region, murdering at least two officials. Officials are worried that if the raid turns out to be the first in a series of similarly coordinated incident, it could cause a decrease in foreign mining investment and slow down the economy, according to the BBC. Mining accounted for 30% of the nation's tax revenues and 55% of Peruvian exports in 2004.