9 of 10 Mine Workers Abducted in Mexico Confirmed Dead: BC Company

A miner lights up one of the caverns so that his colleagues can see the way out San Joaquin, Mexico, on Aug. 19, 2025. AP Photo/Fernando Llano

Nine of 10 workers abducted in January from a Canadian-run mine in Mexico’s Sinaloa state have been confirmed dead, according to the Vancouver-based mining company that owns the operation.

Vizsla Silver Corp. said the investigation into the whereabouts of the still-missing tenth employee is ongoing, and the company is “in close contact” with the worker’s family.

“This is a devastating outcome, and our heartfelt condolences are with all the families impacted,” CEO Michael Konnert said in a company statement. “We stand beside them with continued support as we mourn our colleagues and friends.”

The 10 workers were kidnapped on Jan. 23 from staff quarters at a project site near the city of Concordia. None of the victims were Canadian, officials said at the time.

Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office said in a Feb. 9 statement on Facebook that five of the missing workers had been found in unmarked graves on a property in the town of El Verde within the municipality of Concordia in Sinaloa. Ten bodies were discovered in total, but the remains of the other five had yet to be identified, the attorney general said at the time.

Four people suspected of being connected to the disappearances of the workers were arrested on Feb. 6, and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said the suspects had led police to the bodies.

On-site work at the mine was suspended after the abduction, although remote work continued.

The company said in March that it was reviewing and strengthening its security protocols in close coordination with local authorities but it has yet to announce that its in-person operations have resumed.

Vizsla’s April 6 statement thanked its stakeholders for supporting the firm “during this difficult period” and promised to provide an operational update “in due course.”

The Vizsla Silver Mexico mine, known as the Panuco project, is a high-grade silver-gold operation in an under-explored area of the emerging Western Mexico Silver Belt, 800 kilometres of terrain running along the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains.

Cartel Connection

Vizsla’s mine is in one of several parts of the state where a turf war has played out for more than a year between two competing factions of the Sinaloa cartel.

Some of the Vizsla workers who went missing had been threatened by organized crime gangs in the region, including the Chapitos, a faction of the Sinaloa cartel led by the sons of former Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, several of the victims’ families have said.

This is not the first time mines in Mexico have been the target of organized crime, officials have said. They noted that cartels view mining operations as opportunities for extortion or as avenues to pilfer and sell valuable ore on their own.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.