Morales Fires 2 Bolivia Mining Officials

A state-employed miner walks away from a cloud of dust after a detonation of dynamite inside a facility in the city of Huanuni, some 290 kilometers south of capital La Paz, Bolivia on Friday, Oct. 6, 2006. The Bolivian government is sending 700 additional police to stop a clash between rival bands of miners over one of South America's richest tin mines. .(AP Photo/Dado Galdieri) (Dado Galdieri - AP)

Miners, some only in their teens, carried sticks of dynamite in backpacks and tucked in their belts.

In town, residents held a prayer vigil in the local church for the violence to end. Blood stains and holes from explosives littered a soccer field in the Dolores neighborhood following fighting there Thursday.

On Friday morning, members of the miners' cooperative rolled three tires packed with explosives down the side of the mountain toward town, causing an enormous explosion.

Bolivian mines once produced over 30 percent of the world's tin supply, but production came to almost a complete halt following a collapse of the world metal market in 1985, and national mining company Comibol slashed its workforce by some 25,000 workers.

While many of Huanuni's unemployed miners sought work in other fields and other parts of the country, some remained, and as prices recovered, they formed independent mining cooperatives to mine tin on their own.

Bolivia eventually granted the Huanuni mine concession to British-based Allied Deals. When the company, now known as RBG Resources, abandoned its Bolivian operations in 2005, the mine returned to Comibol, despite demands from the miners' cooperatives for some control over the valuable deposits.

Still, production remains well below pre-1985 levels. In 2005, Bolivia produced only 18,780 tons, or about 5 percent of global output.

Rising tin prices have stoked demands by the independent miners, who see the Huanuni vein as a rare source of steady employment in the poor South American country.