Mining prospectors first discovered silver deposits here in 1860, but the land itself belonged to the Huizopa Ejido, a community of farmers who had worked this soil for generations. The Pima indigenous people also called these highlands home. When Canadian company Minefinders arrived in 2006, they secured mining concession titles through Jose Liebano Saenz Ortiz, a politically connected figure who had served as private secretary to President Ernesto Zedillo. The Huizopa Ejido signed away access to their land for sixteen years in exchange for 39 million pesos. What they did not know: Minefinders had only obtained permission to operate on 500 hectares but would illegally expand onto 3,458 hectares for mineral extraction and exploration.

In May 2008, months after production began, the Permanent Assembly of the Community of Huizopa erected barricades around the mine. They demanded better environmental protection for their land and water. The community stopped mining company workers at the gates. But soldiers passed through freely, and Minefinders exploited this loophole. Armed military guards, sometimes dressed as civilians in company trucks, monitored the blockade and escorted company personnel through. Two community members were detained for hours by police acting on behalf of the mining company. The blockade held for seventeen months before the Mexican military finally broke the community's resistance and restored full access to the operation.

By 2010, the mine was producing 1.22 million ounces of silver and 56,000 ounces of gold annually. Production would climb to 3.57 million ounces of silver and 74,400 ounces of gold by 2011. The underground operation reached depths of 183 meters. But the real costs were surfacing elsewhere. In June 2010, a tear developed in the liner of a leaching pad. The following month, complaints arose about a sodium cyanide spill. The Federal Prosecutor for Environmental Protection confirmed cyanide contamination in the soil but declared no environmental damage. Fish died. Animals died. The Tutuaca River's course shifted, cutting off the water source that sustained the community's livelihoods. Community leaders reported that 100 Pima families were forcibly displaced by contamination from the mine. Their complaints to environmental and human rights authorities went unanswered.

When Pan-American Silver acquired the mine in 2012 for $1.5 billion, they inherited more than an environmental controversy. Territorial control of the Dolores area had become contested ground between rival drug cartels. The militarized government response brought its own violence to the indigenous peoples and rural communities who were trying to defend their land. The cartel presence made it dangerous for human rights observers or journalists to document what was happening. The mine continued operating in this contested landscape, extracting wealth from beneath land that had been home to farming communities and indigenous peoples long before silver was discovered. The name Dolores means sorrows in Spanish.