MEXICO CITY/BOGOTA (Reuters) – Mining companies are ramping up gold exploration in Latin America as areas before seen as risky, like southern Mexico and Colombia, are now glittering with new projects as precious metals prices soar.

Exploration budgets, the first thing mining companies slashed during the financial crisis, plummeted 42 percent from 2008 to 2009, the largest one-year decline in two decades, according to consultancy Metals Economics Group (MEG).

MEXICO CITY/BOGOTA (Reuters) – Mining companies are ramping up gold exploration in Latin America as areas before seen as risky, like southern Mexico and Colombia, are now glittering with new projects as precious metals prices soar.

Exploration budgets, the first thing mining companies slashed during the financial crisis, plummeted 42 percent from 2008 to 2009, the largest one-year decline in two decades, according to consultancy Metals Economics Group (MEG).

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mining firms have shuttered a handful of exploration projects in remote areas of Mexico as the industry grapples with threats from drug cartels and rising security costs, Mexico’s mining chamber said on Thursday.

Cartels are threatening mining operations not just in the violent corridor along the U.S.-Mexico border but in isolated, mountainous regions in other parts of Mexico, where traffickers grow marijuana and heroin poppies, the chamber said.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Genetically modified corn is trickling into Mexico after overcoming years of legal barriers, but where some farmers see the promise of reduced imports others see a threat to their heritage.

For years the revered status of corn in Mexico, widely believed to be the birthplace of the grain, has made the country hesitant to adopt transgenic maize seeds.

EL BATAN, Mexico (Reuters) – More than 500 years after Spanish priests brought wheat seeds to Mexico to make wafers for the Catholic Mass, those seeds may bring a new kind of salvation to farmers hit by global warming.

Scientists working in the farming hills outside Mexico City found the ancient wheat varieties have particular drought- and heat-resistant traits, like longer roots that suck up water and a capacity to store more nutrients in their stalks.

MEXICO CITY, Sept 9 (Reuters) – A labor dispute between
Grupo Mexico and the national miners union has disrupted
operations at its La Caridad copper smelter in northern Mexico
as the company battles the union at another of its major mines,
the company said on Thursday.

Grupo Mexico’s (GMEXICOB.MX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) mining unit Southern Copper
said supporters of the national miners union have been blocking
the transport of workers to the refinery complex at the mine
since Sept. 2, forcing the smelter to operate below capacity.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Fresh clashes erupted on Wednesday between union workers and company contractors at the massive Cananea copper mine in northern Mexico leaving several people severely injured, the local government said.

The mine, owned by major copper producer Grupo Mexico, has been the site of tension after a three-year strike ended earlier this year. The striking miners were removed from the premises by federal police but have continued to protest outside the mine gates.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – One worker died on Wednesday in clashes between union workers and company contractors at the massive Cananea copper mine in northern Mexico, the local government said.

The mine, owned by major copper producer Grupo Mexico, has been the site of tension after a three-year strike ended earlier this year. The striking miners were removed from the premises by federal police but have continued to protest outside the mine gates.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico captured major drug trafficker Edgar “La Barbie” Valdez on Monday in a new victory for President Felipe Calderon in his high-stakes war against murderous cartels that threaten the country’s image among investors and tourists.

Federal police caught Valdez, a leader of the Beltran Leyva cartel based in central Mexico, in a residential area near Mexico City, the government said.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The drug hitmen accused of gunning down dozens of people in gruesome attacks in northern Mexico weren’t worried they would get locked up for years in prison — they were already behind bars.

Officials say prison guards lent guns and vehicles to the inmates, jailed for links to powerful drug cartels, and opened the doors of the jail in Durango state so they could carry out revenge attacks before returning to their cells for the night.