Strike Action Over at Bolivia's San Cristobal Silver Mine

By Joel ScanlonApr 5 2011

The strike at San Cristobal the largest silver mine in Bolivia ended on Monday. The mine is located in the Potosi mineral rich area in south western Bolivia. The mine is run by the Sumitomo Corporation.

The twelve day work stoppage at the world’s third largest silver producing mine came to an end with union workers returning to operational duties as a memorandum of understanding was signed on April 2, 2011.

The San Cristobal mine, its unionized workers and the members of the local community signed the memorandum which will begin talks between the Sumitomo unit and the union workers. They points of contention include workers seeking changes to health care benefits amongst other things. These were instigated after the death of a miner in early March due to the remote location of the mine being unable to provide medical services needed.

The Japanese owned Sumitomo Corp runs the San Cristobal mine at 13,000 feet above sea level in the Andes. It produced some 620,000 kg of fine silver in 2009 as per data available. The deputy mining minister Hector Cordova confirmed the end of the strike. It is hoped that the dispute had little impact on the production of the mine.