Barrick geologist killed in Peru

Jorge Injoque, a geologist working for Barrick Misquichilca, the Peruvian subsidiary of Barrick Gold (ABX-T), has been killed after five men wearing masks attacked a Barrick exploration camp in the Andes.

The attack happened near the village of Azanbamba, in Ayacucho department about 400 km southeast of Lima. Accounts said that five armed men entered the camp in the late afternoon of July 23 while the field crew were eating. A single shot hit geologist Italo Rodriguez in the back, and Injoque was fatally shot while trying to aid Rodriguez. The attackers took money, a truck, satellite telephones, computers, and other equipment. Five other members of the field crew were roughed up but otherwise unharmed.

Rodriguez is in hospital in Puquio, in serious condition.

The Maoist terrorist group Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) has been active in Ayacucho and the neighbouring department of Apurimac in recent years and was initially suspected in the attack, but Igor Gonzalez, general manager of Barrick Misquichilca, told the Peruvian news agency RPP that the company now believes the attackers were only thieves. He said the attack came without warning and that the company had not received any threats.

Peruvian authorities have noted increasing activity by the Sendero since June, when the group kidnapped 71 people working for an Argentine pipeline company in southeastern Peru and held them for a day. Two other incidents in the Ayacucho region have put police in that area on alert.

Injoque, 49, was a consulting geologist based in Lima and was formerly employed by Minas Buenaventura (BVN-N). He held a PhD from the University of Nottingham in Britain. He was well respected in Peruvian geological circles and had been on the organizing committee of the International Congress of Prospectors and Explorers in Lima last April. He was married and had three sons.