The bodies of 13 gold miners were found in an underground shaft at a site operated by Peru’s largest gold-mining company, President Dina Boluarte said on Monday, in a region that has seen growing conflict over access to ore in recent years.
As the price of gold has climbed to record highs, small-scale mining has expanded in Peru, while the mining concessions of the Peruvian company, La Poderosa, in Pataz Province in the northern part of the country, have become a hotbed of illegal gold mining and the site of deadly clashes.
The bodies were found on Sunday, according to Ms. Boluarte. The men had worked for an artisanal, or informal, mining operation that has a contract with La Poderosa, the company said in a statement on Sunday.
A video circulating on social media appeared to show the miners, blindfolded and naked in a mining shaft, being shot in the neck with rifles one by one. One person is heard begging, “Please.” A representative of the national police told The New York Times that officials had not verified the authenticity of the video.
It was not immediately clear why the 13 men were killed. La Poderosa said in its statement that armed criminals had attacked the mining operation and kidnapped the workers on April 26.
Ms. Boluarte said that two people suspected of being connected to the killings had been arrested in Pataz with guns, magazines and ammunition.
