GRO: 2 kidnapping victims still missing from canadian mine project, mine stock declines 8% this week

Lucio republished from Bloomberg  other posts on this story link here and here

Initially, Torex,  the mining company,  called the kidnappings"untrue" that any of the kidnapped worked for the Toronto based Company.  They changed their story, and attempted to offer an excuse as to why they distance themselves from the kidnapping, by saying the victims were mostly employees of "independent contractors" contracted for work at the mine, such as brick layers.  Seems Canada learned fast the ways of Mexico, shield the truth, or twist facts.  -Lucio-

Two people were still missing after Mexican (community) police freed 10. 

Rural (community) police  are working with federal officers and the army in the Cocula, Guerrero area to find the two, including a worker at Torex Gold Resources Inc.’s Media Luna gold mine, said a rural deputy commander who gave his name as David. He asked not to be identified, citing security concerns. Torex confirmed that the employee still hasn’t been found, and the company’s shares fell for the second day since the kidnapping.

The interior ministry said in a statement Sunday that authorities had rescued 10 victims(regional media report 18 kidnapped) and taken two people into custody as suspects in the kidnapping. The ministry made no mention of victims who remained missing and didn’t speculate on the motive for the kidnappings. Authorities are using helicopters to comb the surrounding mountains, said a government official with knowledge of the probe who asked not to be named because details aren’t public.

“The community and the Army continue to look for more people,” Gabriela Sanchez, vice president for investor relations at Toronto-based Torex, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. She declined to give the name of the missing employee.

“We hire a lot of labor, as many people as we can from the local communities. He’s one of those hires,” she said.

The interior ministry’s press office wasn’t able to provide the identities of the people who were rescued and David declined to provide access to them.

President Enrique Pena Nieto has promised better security in states such as Guerrero, where organized crime and poverty are rife. In October, federal police took over responsibility for security in the Cocula area, which includes a garbage dump where authorities say members of the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel burned the bodies of the college students after kidnapping them with help from local police.  [believable to few in Mexico]

Torex, which is building the Media Luna mine, said in a statement on Saturday that one of the people reported missing was on the company’s staff and three others were contractors. About 200 people work for the company full-time at the site and 1,200 work for contractors, Sanchez said. Torex hasn’t received threats or been the victim of extortion attempts, she said. 
 

Military police dressed in green uniforms and holding assault rifles stopped and examined cars on Monday afternoon along the main hillside road from Cocula to Nuevo Balsas, the village that sits at the foot of the mine. 

Torex shares fell 2.3 percent to C$1.26 at 2:51 p.m. in Toronto after slumping 5.8 percent on Monday. 

 Security problems in Guerrero have hurt operations at some mines and other businesses, prompting the federal government to bolster its security efforts in the state, Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo told reporters on Tuesday. 

 David, the deputy commander, said locals have faced extortion attempts and other attacks from gangs once Torex pays them for work at Media Luna.