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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Canadian among five kidnapped gold-mine workers
Colombian rebels nab prospectors
BOGOTA, Colombia -- Leftist rebels kidnapped five gold prospectors doing exploratory drilling for a Canadian company -- a Canadian, two Peruvians and two Colombians -- before dawn Friday in a northern province, officials said.
Toronto-based Braeval Mining Corp. said the five -- three company employees and two consultants -- were working at its Snow Mine gold and silver project. It did not further identify them.
The men were seized about 5 a.m. by about two dozen rebels of the leftist National Liberation Army, Colombia's second-largest insurgency, in a rural area of the Bolivar state municipality of Norosi, said armed forces commander Gen. Alejandro Navas.
The rebel band, known by its Spanish-language initials ELN, is far smaller, with an estimated 1,500 fighters, than the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which is currently engaged in peace talks with the government in Cuba.
The ELN has been seeking peace talks, though without success. Unlike the FARC, it has not renounced ransom kidnappings.
Colombia's president, Juan Manuel Santos, is anxious to end a half-century of civil conflict that economists say costs the country hundreds of millions of dollars a year in lost economic opportunity, especially in the mining sector. Miners in Colombia have traditionally paid tributes, or "war taxes," to rebels and other illegal armed groups in exchange for being allowed to exploit precious metals.
Braeval Mining said it was fully co-operating with Colombian authorities in seeking to obtain the men's safe release.
"The company's foremost concern right now is ensuring the security and well-being of those employees and those consultants," said spokesman Chris Eby.
Eby did not provide any details about the Canadian employee.
The company, which went public in December, says on its website it has options to acquire an interest in four adjacent mineral titles in the Snow Mine project, where it is looking for gold, silver and copper. It says it also holds or has applied for interests in Mexico, Peru, Honduras and Nicaragua.
A Canadian geologist who surveyed the 10-square-mile Snow Mine site last year, Darrel Smith, told the AP that exploration was at an early stage. Company documents say Braeval planned to drill at least 10 holes to obtain samples in an area where Smith said informal miners had dug shafts.
The area, in the San Lucas mountains, is a traditional ELN stronghold.
A regional security official, Jose Hilario Bossio, told The Associated Press that the kidnapped men included engineers and geologists. He said soldiers and police had mounted a rescue operation and were sweeping the sparsely populated area in the San Lucas mountains.
The armed forces said it had put planes in the air to try to find them.
A spokeswoman for Canada's Foreign Affairs Departmentsaid it was aware of the reported kidnapping of a Canadian in Colombia but provided no information on his identity.
The two Peruvians were identified as Javier Leandro Ochoa and Jose Antonio Mamani by Peru's consul in Colombia, Jorge Davila. It was not immediately clear if they were Braeval employees.
Colombia's vice-president, Angelino Garzon, appealed to the ELN to immediately free the five kidnapped men without condition.
-- The Associated Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 19, 2013 A24
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