Franklin Mining, Inc. (FMNJ)

[CHA-RU]

LA PAZ, Bolivia — President Evo Morales fired two top mining officials late Friday after a clash between rival bands of miners over access to the country's richest tin deposit left at least 16 dead and more than 60 injured.

Reports of a halt to the fighting came after the government sent 700 police to control the mountainside where the mine is located.

Officials from the two mining groups also met with government ministers in La Paz. Presidential spokesman Alex Contreras said the meeting yielded a peace agreement, with both sides agreeing to allow humanitarian aid to enter the town.

It wasn't immediately known if the agreement would turn into a permanent cease-fire. A truce on Thursday night lasted long enough for both sides to bury their dead.

Morales said the changes were part of the his administration's learning process.

"In eight months we cannot solve all of our social problems,"he said."I recognize, self-critically, that we are all new at this _ ministers, vice ministers, president, vice president, all learning to serve the people better."

Morales, who took office in January as Bolivia's first indigenous president, responded to the violence by dismissing both the minister of mines, Walter Villarroel, and president of Bolivia's state-owned mining company Comibol, Antonio Rebollo.