MANAGUA (Reuters) - Rescue workers have spoken to a group of more than 15 miners still trapped after a landslide at a gold mine in northern Nicaragua, the company that used to operate the mine said on Friday, although several are still unaccounted for.
Julio Quintero, head of Nicaraguan miner Hemco, a unit of Colombia's Mineros S.A., said the mine in the Bonanza project some 260 miles (420 km) northeast of Managua, was shut roughly four years ago after being deemed unsafe.
Nonetheless, legal artisanal miners had continued to work there against the company's orders, and Quintero said Hemco had continued to buy minerals from them until last week, when it decided it could not be sure where the product came from.
Quintero said he still hoped more miners would be freed.
"We've made vocal contact with these people ... they're more than 15 who say they are down there," he said. "The people are alive, thirsty, but alive."
The fate of the other miners is unclear.
Artisanal mining is legal in Nicaragua, the poorest country in Latin America, where it is used as a way for more people to profit from the industry.
In a separate statement, parent company Mineros said the collapse occurred early on Thursday morning on El Comal mountain, 2-1/2 miles (4 km) from their mine in Bonanza.
The mine had been severely affected by seasonal rains in the past, the company said in its statement, with another landslide two months ago killing two miners.
"The rescue efforts are permanent and won't stop until we have helped the people who remain inside," the statement said.
The Bonanza project, which began in 1995, produces around 37,300 troy ounces of gold a year, according to Hemco's website.
(Reporting by Peter Murphy and Gabriel Stargardter; Writing by Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Simon Gardner, Gunna Dickson and Andre Grenon)
