Operations at Bolivia’s biggest tin mine, the state-run Huanuni operation, were back to normal by Saturday 25 May after the end of an 18-day strike that cost the mine at least $8-million, Reuters reported. Miners had stopped work as part of a general strike organised by Bolivia’s COB labour federation to demand better pension benefits. The COB ended its protest on 21 May after the government of president Evo Morales said it would take a month to study the demands.
The Huanuni company has 4,550 workers and the mine was targeted to produce 10,000 tonnes of tin-in-concentrate this year. An expansion in ore processing capacity to 3,000 tonnes of ore per day from a current rate of 1,400 tpd is due to be completed in the first quarter of 2014, according to local newspaper La Razon. At the expanded rate current reserves give the mine a life of 7.3 years, although mines minister Mario Virreira said that increased exploration activity would extend this.
