Mulatos is a gold mine located in the town of Sahuaripa in Sonora, Mexico.
Alamos Gold bought the mine in 2003 and commercial production started in 2006.
A fatal landslide occurred at the mine in 2018, following a 2014 warning about the potential risk. An armed robbery of gold and silver alloy bars took place on the mine's runway in 2020.
Description
The Mulatos mine is an open-pit[1][2] gold mine, located in Sahuaripa, Sonora, Mexico.[3] The state of Sonora produced 33% Mexico's total gold production in 2019.[4] It is one of two mines owned by Alamos Gold in the state of Sonora, the other being El Chanate.[5]
The mine is operated by the company's local subsidiary Minas de Oro Nacional.[6]
History
Alamos Gold bought the mine in 2003 for US$10 million and poured the first bar of gold on 2005. Commercial production started in April 2006.[2]
Production increased during 2019.[4] The mine was the target of five[6] armed robbers who took security staff hostage[7] and seized bars of doré (gold-silver alloy) bars from the mine's runway[8] on April 8, 2020,[7] before making off in their own small airplane.[8] The National Bank of Canada reported that 2,600 ounces of the alloy were stolen.[8]
In 2022, the mine's owners extended extraction to a satellite mine in the municipality of Puerto del Aire, where 428,000 ounces of gold are estimated to exist within 2.9 million tonnes of ore.[9]
