Police took control of Grupo Mexico's Cananea copper mine from striking workers on Sunday. The Mexican mine isabout 40 km south of the Arizona border and has been on strike since July 30, 2007, according to a number of news reports. Up to 2,000 federal and Sonoran state police entered the mine and evicted strikers.
President Calderon was reportedly resolved to end the stalemate after the labor union threatened to blow up the mine.
Cananea is one of the largest open-pit copper mines in the world, and produced over 164,000 tonnes of copper in 2006. [right, astronaut photo of Cananea pit in upper right. Credit, NASA]
The NASA site that provided this photo says a miner's strike in 1906 resulted in 19 deaths and is considered to be one of the major catalysts of the Mexican Revolution of 1910.