9 years after mine spill in northern Mexico, new report gives locals hope for long-awaited cleanup

By DANIEL SHAILER
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Locals are still suffering from a massive 2014 waste spill at a copper mine in the northern Mexican border state of Sonora, officials with the country’s environmental agency say. They are confirming that the spill was not solely caused by dramatic rainfall, as was initially reported, but by the “inadequate design” of a dam at Buenavista del Cobre mine, owned by the country’s largest copper producer, Grupo México. Locals and environmental advocates say the report offers the clearest view yet of the catastrophic scale of the accident and, with it, new hope that Grupo México may finally be held financially accountable after almost a decade of legal battles and broken promises.