Vizsla Silver determined to develop Panuco silver-gold project Mexico 

Vizsla Silver said it remains determined to develop the Panuco silver-gold project in Mexico’s strife-torn Sinaloa state after an armed group kidnapped 10 company workers, killing at least five of them.

Five of the kidnapped employees remain unaccounted for, almost three weeks after their abduction, Vancouver-based Vizsla said Thursday in a statement.

Authorities in Sinaloa said this week they had found 10 bodies in a clandestine grave, though the Mexican attorney general’s office said it had only identified five of them.

The workers were abducted Jan. 23 by members of a criminal group as they were traveling from the camp where they lived in the city of Concordia to their work at the mine, about 15 km away, Mexican media reported last weekend. The victims included engineers and technical personnel working for Vizsla, El Financiero said.

Vizsla shares fell 0.6% to C$5.21 Thursday morning in Toronto, giving the miner a market value of about $1.75 billion ($1.3 billion). The stock has lost about 44% of its value since Jan. 28, the last trading day before the company disclosed the kidnappings.