Blackfire Exploration - Dark Days of Corruption, Murder and the Downfall of a Mayan Community

 By Brent Willis, COO Voyageur Minerals Ltd.

In 2008 Blackfire Exploration began mining in the State of Chiapas, Mexico on a large barite deposit on land owned by Indigenous Mayan Indian communities. It is a story of extortion, money laundering, illegal shutdowns, imprisonment of innocent men and murder. The following is my experience with Blackfire Exploration and the darkest days that we are emerging from with my family.

In 2008, my brother Brad Willis (P.Eng in mining engineering) and myself (B.Sc.Eng), started an exploration company named Blackfire Exploration Ltd (“Blackfire”). It was named after the heat of the iron black sand beaches in Chiapas that would burn your feet. We began the project in the State of Chiapas, Mexico on a large barite deposit that was located on land owned by indigenous Mayan Indian communities.

When we first visited the ejidos[1] of Neuva Morellia and Gris Monta?a, which are small Mayan communities located near the deposit, it was plain to see the people lived well below the poverty line. The children were malnourished with distended bellies and many children were not going to school. We felt this was an opportunity for Blackfire Exploration to help change their lives and build a better future for many  

The project was launched and in short order we began to see the success. Our team brought the mine into production within one year of hitting the ground. Professionals in our industry will recognize this is an amazing accomplishment, especially in a state that has not had a producing mine in its history.

We built a team that included outstanding Canadian managers, including my brother Brad, who were instrumental in our success. It was a quintessential team effort that could not have happened without the exceptional Mayan people who made building and starting a mine not only possible but a reality.

We offered the indigenous people the tools to improve their lives. They grasped these tools and raised themselves out of poverty. Ninety percent of our work force were local Mayan Indians, over 100 employees with many who could walk from home/hut to work every day. We trained them to run rock trucks, crushers, bulldozers, loaders, excavators, drills , become prospectors, surveyors and road builders. They constructed all the infrastructure, including building and raising a bridge over a river that had isolated their communities from the closest town for years.

We paid our workers industry standard wages with health and dental care. We did not pay anyone minimum wage. This caused problems with the State government and they demanded we cut the wages equivalent to coffee pickers. We ignored their demands and told them that these people are not picking coffee, they are mine workers. We leased the land from the individual land owners and from the ejidos which generated local cash flow, thereby raising their standard of living.

The mine created a micro economy for the area. In the closest town of Chicomuselo, the hotels, fuel stations, supplies, groceries stores and restaurants began to benefit. Blackfire supported a 100% Mayan women’s company that manufactured our sample bags. We bought wood core boxes from a local manufacturer instead of ordering cheaper cardboard core boxes from International mine supply companies. We employed local mechanics and welders, sponsored sporting events, festivals and donated to local infrastructure work projects. Blackfire Exploration had the support of the local community.

Environmentally we had a very sound project. We mined by trenching the 500m long by 8m to 20m wide deposit on surface. The area we were mining was 150m by 8m and was usually mistaken by visitors as road construction. People would ask where is the mine?

No explosives were used. Blackfire did not have acid leaching issues with arsenic or any other heavy metals, nor did we use any chemicals in our processing. We extracted the ore with excavators and trucked it down the mountain with articulating rock trucks. It was crushed and delivered direct to the local oil and gas industry using local area truck drivers. 

We implemented a sponsorship of reforestation (tree planting) on 100 hectares of land and began a greenhouse project to reintroduce endangered plant species back to the lands we were working on. We sponsored a coffee plant program for the locals to increase their crop yields and productivity.

The geology in the region was exciting! Our barite deposit was sedimentary in nature, yet it was crystalline high grade barite that looked like it was hydrothermal. The sedimentary barite had undergone extreme heat and pressure, re-crystallized and purified. At lower elevations we identified another barite vein with one that contained 5 grams/tonne gold. Further down trend there were a series of pure antimony veins that contain 79% stibnite and on grab samples contained  as high as 3.5 ounces of gold. We also had a titanium deposit with one of the highest grade ilmenite and rutile in the world. Blackfire staked the largest heavy mineral sands deposits in the world, over 800,000 Ha that contained high grade titaniferous magnetite and within the concentrate were high values of vanadium, gold, neodymium, praseodymium, and niobium. As we advanced our exploration in the region, local mountain farmers brought us samples of high purity copper, lead, silver, zinc, cobalt, graphite and gold ore.

Our exploration was being led by my brother Brad, who spent countless months in the bush exploring and identifying potential new deposits. He found interesting mineralization in the sands that ran for over 200km along the coast line. Minerals such as Wüstite (FeO) and Hongquiite (TiO). A hand grab sample was brought to us that we named the mystery rock as the person who gave it to us would not tell us where he got it from, but claimed there was a vein running up the mountain that looked like the skin of a snake. It was a 4”-5” light blue/grey rock that was extremely light and to hard to split. We sent it to a lab in Calgary to be identified and the lab could not determine what it was. We then sent it to the Geological Survey of Canada for X-Ray Diffraction analysis and SEM-EDS analysis and they identified it as 90% Silicone with 10% ferdisilicite (FeSi2). It was not 90% SiO2… It was 90% Si, pure silicone. The GSC determined it was not man made. This sample was similar to rocks that NASA recovered from the moon. Not on earth. This led to the theoretical discovery of “Brads Crater”. My brother identified a potential meteor impact zone in the state of Chiapas that extended into Guatemala. The impact is roughly 350km in diameter and may be a new and very significant discovery. What makes this so interesting is that the impact is located on top of a large mantle plume and two major fault lines.  This might explain the high purity of the minerals in the SW state of Chiapas and the rare earths that are present in the magnetite running with the pegmatite all along the coastal mountains. The age of the crater is unknown and more work is required to prove this impact theory .

We were all very excited and proud of what we were accomplishing both in the mine and watching the Mayan people thrive. But this success is also what led to the darkest period of many lives, including my own, and the demise of Blackfire Exploration.

As we advanced our project, the local Mafia boss began to extort us. He threatened to kill my brother, our Canadian employees and myself. This man’s criminal record listed murder and robbery plus he had the reputation working in human trafficking on the boarder town of Chicomuselo.   

Mariano Abarca Roblero was his name. When he realized, we were not afraid of him and would not pay his $10,000 a month extortion fee - he threatened to destroy our mining project.  He then began an ‘anti mining’ movement against our company. As our cash flow increased, many others began to try and extort us. We adamantly refused to pay or recognize their attempts.

During this time, two gentlemen supported our project, Walter León Montoya and Horacio Culebro Borealis. These gentlemen were also campaigning against the state government at the time, legally fighting the state to prevent them from extending the terms of state politicians from a 6 year term to an 8 year term. Upon winning the court case they became enemy number one of the government. During their legal battle they uncovered a multi billion dollar money laundering scam that implicated state officials, robbing the people of Chiapas.

The emergence of the anti-mining movement was growing. We were being accused of polluting with arsenic, mercury and cyanide, causing cancer and disease that was killing children. We were accused of assaulting people and having unjust hiring practices. They posted pictures of polluted rivers and doctored our mine to look like a large open pit. They bused in paid protesters to the town of Chicomuselo. These paid protestors vandalized local property, damaged cars and buildings, creating conflict in the town. It was a never ending list of lies and propaganda. It was well financed and we were unsure of who was targeting us. We knew it was a force much bigger than Mariano Abarca Roblero. At this point we had no understanding of the events that were taking place behind the scenes.

The Canadian government sent an envoy to our mine to inspect and investigate the allegations. They could see clearly that we were running an ethical and environmentally sound project. 

When we began moving equipment to our mine site we had to navigate all equipment through the narrow streets of the town of Chicomuselo, which was located about 30km away from our mine site. We had a large crawler crusher unit delivered and because of it’s size it needed to be offloaded and crawled through the town of Chicomuselo. We damaged several sidewalks in the town and repairs were needed.

It is important to understand that in the border region of Chiapas and in the town of Chicomuselo there are no banks. The people do not have bank accounts and the town did not have a bank account. We paid our employees and the majority of all services in cash.

The decision was made by Blackfire Mexican management that funds needed to be transferred to the town to repair the damage we caused and they reviewed their options. They decided that using the state government to manage the funds would probably result in the loss of those funds. During this period of time in the project, the Mayor of Chicomuselo was looked at as a supporter of the project. It was decided that funds would be allocated to him as he had a bank account. This allowed a paper trail to be created in case funds were misappropriated. It was further decided that checks would be issued to show proof of payment. The Mayor ended up stealing these funds. Blackfire immediately reported the theft of funds to the state government and demanded that actions be taken.

This incident would later be used by Mining Watch Canada to start a two year RCMP investigation into Blackfire, but no charges were ever brought forward. It was a major waste of tax payer money based on propaganda into an incident that was properly documented and reported by our company from the beginning.  

In December of 2009 Mariano Abarca Roblero was gunned downed on a busy street near the town square in Chicomuselo.  There were multiple witnesses who saw the gunman on a motorcycle. Mariano Abarca was led out onto the street by an associate of his and the motor bike drove by, the driver shooting him multiple times. Witnesses all stated they did not recognize the shooter.  At the time, everyone assumed that Mariano Abarca Roblero was killed by a rival gang.  However, the next morning, the state police started arresting a number of our employees who resided in town waiting for their ride to the work site.  

Several of our employees were charged with murder. All of them had solid alibis and none of them were in the area when the murder took place. They all had dozens of witnesses as to their whereabouts. One employee was accused of using his own motor bike for the crime and was with other mine employees at the time of the incident. His motorcycle was in a local shop in pieces being repaired. That gentleman, who grew up in the small town, was respected by everyone who knew him and he was accused of being the shooter, yet all witnesses who saw the killer stated it was not him. 

What followed was a media propaganda cycle that put intense pressure on our company. The Governor General of Canada, Micha?lle Jean was scheduled to arrive in Chiapas later in the week for a pre-scheduled event to talk about women’s rights. The day before she arrived the state government shut the mine down on trumped up environmental charges. In fact, the site had recently been inspected by the Mexican government and had passed inspection. But, due to political pressure they shut us down on emissions regulations meant for a large factory - smelter sized operations.  The largest piece of equipment we had was a mobile crusher with a diesel engine.  After they illegally shut down our mine, State officials started harassing our employees and local ejido members.

Blackfire took the state government to federal court and we were successful in our bid that proved the shutdown was illegal. The state government managed to have the case appealed to a Chiapas court. At that point we knew we could not win. The mine was permanently shut down.

The state arrested Walter León Montoya and Horacio Culebro Borealis as the masterminds of the murder. They began torturing one of our imprisoned employees to make him blame Blackfire management for being the co- conspirators of the murder.  Blackfire management begged for help from the Mexican Federal and Canadian governments to put a stop to the torture. It took two weeks of constant pressure to save this man’s life.

The pressure worked and the torture halted. Our employee was as tough as they come and was tortured for two weeks. Many of these men had to spend the next two years in one of the worst prisons imaginable for a crime they did not commit. All were eventually released from prison with no charges ever being laid against them.

During these dark days Blackfire did not know who was responsible or why. It was not until a multi-billion dollar money laundering scam came to light implicating the state government and a Mexican media tycoon. The media tycoon controlled the press and it became clear why our story was never told and why we were constantly bombarded with propaganda news around the operation of our mine, and the murder. This group used the murder to silence the men who uncovered the money laundering scam. For years after their release, Mr. Horacio Culebro Borealis, campaigned vigorously to bring those he thought responsible for the murder to justice.

Although the odds stacked against us were overwhelming and we did not fully understand who was working against us, we did not give up. In 2010 the State Government continued to provide verbal support to move our other projects forward if we assured them that the barite mine would stay shut down. They did a convincing job of pretending they were supportive.

We moved on to our heavy mineral sands project and with a NI-43-101 report in hand, began negotiating with Chinese companies. One company engaged and we spent months negotiating, flying to China for meetings and eventually, we had a signed contract in hand valued at over $100 million. Then, this group mysteriously went silent and the contract died. We then engaged a second Chinese firm, spent months in negotiations and signed a second contract with similar terms. Upon signing this group also went silent and the contract died.

Several years later we found out that the first group was given a demand by the Chiapas state government that they would have to pay them $4 million up front before they could start the project. The Chinese walked away. The second group was threatened with death. That put an end to their Chiapas venture and ours also.

During this period my brother and I struggled to recover anything we could for our shareholders. We had interested parties looking at our projects and we ended up selling the barite mine in exchange for Blackfire debts being covered plus a royalty. The buyer tried for years to move the project forward but failed.  With an ongoing RCMP investigation we were not able to raise any capital and our personal finance were being exhausted.  

From the time of the shut down and for years after, my brother and I were receiving death threats It became the most stressful experience of our lives. Suddenly, we were unemployable, our reputations destroyed as all the propaganda and outright lies made it look like we were guilty of crimes we did not commit, even murder, swirled around us, our families and throughout the mining community. It took a toll on our families with high stress from the propaganda and financial strains. That we were in hell is the only way to express it.

The Mayan people lost their incomes and fell back into poverty. The men who where falsely accused of murder endured pain and suffering beyond what any of us, including myself, can imagine. They spent years in one of the worst Mexican prisons and having their reputations destroyed.

This experience reinforced my perseverance to strive forward and strengthen my ethical resolve. Sir Winston Churchill’s quote: “If you’re going though hell, keep going, success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. Never, never, never give up.”, resonated with me throughout this hardship.

We have since learned that we have not been the only Canadian company to be targeted. These techniques of false accusations and anti-mining propaganda disseminated on a project occur frequently. There is a clear pattern that is employed against Canadian companies. It is almost as if there is a standard play book out there on how to shut down a project.

People ask me why is it that Canadian companies are always targeted? The answer is simple; the Canadian mining industry is the most successful, ethical, socially responsible, environmentally conscience mining industry in the world. The industry employs professionals who follow specific guidelines on how a project commences, explores, reports and moves forward. The professionals in the mining industry are at the top of their class. Canadians find more minerals than any other group in the industry. We are good at what we do and we do it under the guidelines laid out by the CIM, with ethics as the backbone of our success. The fact that Canadian companies are highly successful is why we are targeted.

Shareholders, investors and all Canadians should question why a company is being accused of human rights violation, pollution, crimes of abuse. Why is it only happening to projects that have a significant discovery or are about start production?” What about the thousands of exploration projects around the world? Why are they not targeted? I can only state from my experience that it has everything to do with money.

Our Canadian CEO’s, mine managers, geologist and officers are not out to harm people, violate human rights or destroy the environment. Canadian companies are not going out to strip the wealth from the indigenous people in third world countries. On the whole they share the wealth they create. They move projects forward that help lift the indigenous people out of poverty, they create infrastructure, industry and employment. Our mining industry is led by ethical and moral people who love their work and take pride in developing projects in the third world. Our industry is about elevating human rights, creating wealth and taking steps to create the most environmentally sound projects possible.

Continually, anti-mining organizations and the media have distorted the truth and made totally false statements about Blackfire and what actually happened. They have attacked the Canadian government who investigated and found undeniable proof that the claims were false. There seems to be a movement waging a war against Canadians based on propaganda.

One day, I hope a successful mining industry can be reborn in Chiapas. It is the last unexplored mineral frontier in the Americas and holds a massive amount of mineral wealth. If managed ethically and responsibly it could elevate the people of Chiapas and beyond out of poverty. I wish, for the sake of the Mayan people, Blackfire could have operated for years and provided employment and stability to them and I often think of the men who spent years behind bars for something they never did and hope they know we never gave up behind the scenes to get them out.

In spite of these dark days and disappointment, my brother and I were fortunate that our friends and family stood by our sides throughout the years. The shareholders of Blackfire continually met with us and offered their support when we were forced, due to security concerns, to halt all communications about our projects. 

I hope that readers can learn from my experience and realize that when accusations are made against companies that there are always two sides of a story. It was a tragedy that in our case the truth was never reported. We live in an unethical world that is based on greed and corruption with environmental mercenaries who are always quick to pounce and defame based on making a buck. Unfortunately we see this story being played out in many Canadian industries and the vast majority of Canadians don’t  want or care to question  the propaganda.

[1] ejidos - an area of communal land used for agriculture on which community members individually farm designated parcels and collectively maintain communal holdings.