LIMA, Peru — Some 300 farmworkers and students on Monday blocked the main road to Mount Quilish in northern Peru to protest gold prospecting they fear will pollute the water supply coming off the mountain, which they believe is sacred.

"They are still blocking the highway, peacefully," said a police spokesman, who declined to give his name. "There are about 300 of them."

Minera Yanacocha, which is majority owned by U.S.-based Newmont Mining Corp., issued a statement Monday that it had halted exploration for gold on the mountain. The company said it planned to launch an extensive environmental impact study with the "widest participation of the population" to address local concerns.

Police clashed on Thursday with several thousand protesters from Cajamarca, 350 miles (560 kilometers) north of Lima in the Andes Mountains. Six police were reported injured, and eight demonstrators were arrested.

Last year, Peru's Constitutional Tribunal ruled that Yanacocha could go ahead with plans to mine Mount Quilish, striking down the city of Cajamarca's designation of the mountain as a protected environmental zone.

Yanacocha has held exploitation rights to Mount Quilish since 1986 and estimates it holds 3.7 million ounces (105 million grams) of gold.

Mining Minister Jaime Quijandria said Monday that the government and company have "an immense" job convincing Cajamarca residents that exploration for gold on Mount Quilish — traditionally considered a mountain deity, or apu — should continue.

"We are confronting a general belief that has to do with, firstly, a sacred mountain, an apu, so it is very difficult to advance an argument," he told CPN Radio. "I don't wish to discount anyone's beliefs, much less be disrespectful."

He said three independent studies have shown that Quilish provides less than 5 percent of Cajamarca's potable water and that mining would not contaminate the watershed.

On Sunday, Yanacocha published advertisements in several newspapers saying, "The violent acts registered as a result of the exploration in Mount Quilish have their roots in the drought that has affected the northern regions for the last two years. Yanacocha is ready to hold a dialogue and to deal with the concerns of the population, but this requires the establishment of a climate of peace and tranquility."