The estimated copper production for this year in Peru is 2.8 million tons, some 400,000 tons more than in 2022, after a start of the year marked by stoppages in mining areas due to anti-government protests, informed this Monday the Minister of Energy and Mines, Óscar Vera.
The head of the sector stated that the protests that broke out last December, after the inauguration of President Dina Boluarte, and extended during the first quarter of the year, affected “significantly the production” in the southern mining corridor, since it “was blocked”.
The mining companies “lowered their production and some closed down”, but in the last few days, after the lifting of most of the protests, “all the mining companies ratified their interest in continuing to invest in the country”, said Vera in a press conference with the Association of Foreign Press in Peru (APEP).
In this sense, the minister estimated that this year’s production will be 2.8 million tons of copper, since at this moment the companies “are working at full capacity” and that “perhaps it will be a good year”, taking into account the increase in the price of the red mineral.
Vera said that, after the blockades, the Las Bambas mine, one of the largest producers in the country, “had a year of accumulated production and had not been able to extract it”.
For this reason, when activity resumed in the mining corridor, the company increased the fleet of vehicles transporting the mineral and managed to remove approximately one million tons, which will be added to the national production for the year, said the authority.
Regarding investments in the sector, Vera informed that this year 600 million dollars will be invested in exploration of 74 projects and 18,500 million dollars in maintenance of the deposits in operation.
On the other hand, regarding the impact of illegal mining in Peru, the ministry informed that this illicit activity generated more than US$3.5 billion in 2021, according to data from the Financial Investigation Unit (UIF).
In addition, there were 362 interdiction operations in that year in the regions of Madre de Dios, Amazonas and La Libertad, where there is greater impact of illegal gold mining.
Vera admitted that “there are areas in the jungle where apparently” illegal mining and drug trafficking “work together” and are “linked”.
Regarding the illegally extracted gold that is allegedly taken to Bolivia, the minister said that the Ministry of Economy and Finance has been asked to “review its procedures for the formalization” of artisanal mining in the south of the country, since some 80,000 people in that area of Peruvian territory are involved in this activity.