“We appreciate the government’s efforts to uphold the law by assuring ongoing access to and from Peñasquito while continuing to sponsor the dialogue process, should that continue to be needed,” President and CEO Tom Palmer said. “Our focus is on ensuring a safe startup of operations so our workforce can return to their jobs in an orderly manner.”

The blockade has been on ongoing between the local community and the mine. Operations at Peñasquito have been suspended since the blockade began on September 14. The roadblock was initiated because of community concerns over the water supply and problems related to a trucking contractor.

Newmont Goldcorp said Peñasquito has enhanced water availability for the mine’s 25 neighboring communities through a number of projects including water treatment plants, new wells, pipelines and water trucks, along with 90 other infrastructure and community development projects. This includes installing and operating a Reverse Osmosis water treatment plant in the Cedros community in 2018 with a capacity of 600,000 liters of drinking water per day.