"27 DEAD IN SMALL-SCALE MINE IN AREQUIPA", 13 May 2023

...On Saturday 6 May, 27 miners died of carbon monoxide poisoning due to a fire in the small-scale Esperanza I gold mine of the Yanaquihua mining company in the province of Condesuyos, Arequipa region. It is thought that the fire was caused by a spark from an electrical fault. 175 other miners were evacuated.

The miners were employed by the subcontractor to Yanaquihua, Servivol, working largely as drillers at the rock face, but they also included supervisors and transporters. Reports claim that there were no evacuation plans in place.

The Minister for Energy and Mines, Óscar Vera, visited the site and highlighted that it was the Regional Government’s responsibility to oversee the permits and checks required for artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in the region. He promised that a review would consider if those checks were made, and if not whether the regional government had sufficient resources to undertake this role.

In an interview with national press, the Director of the Regional Government’s office for Energy and Mines, Humberto Bernedo, stated that the regional government visited the mine in November last year to check that safety and other regulations were being complied with, but no faults were found at the time. The Regional Governor, Rohel Sánchez, called on the labour regulation authority (Sunafil) to visit the site and investigate whether measures were being complied with. The incident has been referred to the public prosecutor’s office for investigation...