In September 2012, a portion of the mine was taken over by members of the rural peasant community and small-scale miners who were demanding work [1]. They criticized the company for having reduced the workforce to a minimum and not benefiting impoverished. 

Since then, there have been repeated labour-related incidents at the mine with significant economic consequences for the San Vicente operations. 

Union discontent has wavered depending on how successful the company has been with managing the leadership. In 2014, the union ceased operations and declared a general strike when it became clear that the company was intervening in and unjustly prosecuting union leaders and rank and file workers [2]. The union then sent a commission of 100 miners to the capital city of La Paz to demand the manager quit for "political persecution of union leaders", "trying to divide the leadership", and for dismissing workers for being involved in a hunger-strike. The strike lasted 14 days and the conflict was mediated by the national mining company COMIBOL [3]. 

Union struggles erupted again in January 2017 when the union claimed that six miners were "unjustly fired". The company argued the miners were fired for consuming alcoholic beverages, but the union denied these allegations, arguing that the company was laying off workers due to low silver prices. (4) 

Later, in September 2017, the union declared a "state of emergency" [5] in response to company downsizing which resulted in a dearth of safety equipment and a worsening of working conditions. The union demanded that a representative of the company travel to Bolivia to hear their demands. 

As the mine’s operations come to an end, future conflicts between the union and the company could arise again [6]. 

Pan American silver has been at San Vicente since 1999, and its ownership of the Bolivian subsidiary has changed, consolidating to its present ownership of 95% in 2007.

The mine's mill throughput is 950tn/day and in 2018 the mine produced (PAS's share of 95%) 3.5 million ounces of silver, 0.5 million ounces of gold (byproduct), 7400 tones of zinc, 800 tones of lead, and 1000 tones of copper.

In 2018, San Vicente reported revenues of 60,5 million $US and net earnings of 6,6 million $US.

Concentrate production from San Vicente is sent to buyers who then export the concentrate from port in Antofagasta, Chile. A portion of silver concentrate is delivered to Altonorte smelting facility near Antofagasta, Chile.