The two-month-old strike by miners at the Cananea copper mines, in the northern Mexican province of Sonora is being seen as a blessing in disguise for an industry hard hit by falling prices. The mines are of significant historical importance, as it was here that the stand between the miners and the management heralded the advent of the Mexican Revolution in 1906.

"We never meant it to happen, but we have stopped losing money,' joked Gabino Paez, director of the industrial relations group at the mines.