Peru announces in October mining industry continues to grow despite political convulsions

Official sources indicate that mining investments grew 6.3% in August 2018 next to the same month last year, reaching 395 million USD. Between January and August 2018, investments in the mining industry reached 2.75 billion USD, 25.2% more than the same period in 2017. The Energy and Mining Ministry stated that the mining industry is expecting to attract 21 billion USD in investments in the coming three years.

Although Peru has had four ministers running the Energy and Mining Ministry in the last two years, there are no major anti-mining political platforms in the country. The mining industry has had a stable growth, partly fueled by government policies. However, while the industry is likely to experience a substantial growth in the coming years, security problems related to localized conflicts between mining operations and local and indigenous communities persist. While exploration and drilling operations continue to expand, the state has not necessarily managed to build infrastructure projects to improve the accessibility of remote areas in mountainous regions. Moreover, successive governments have failed to improve the overall conditions of impoverished communities in the vicinity of mining operations. In this regard, although some operations have caused environmental hazards to nearby inhabitants, such problems have not prompted the government to monitor mining operations closely. While mining outputs continue to increase, precedents in Bolivia suggest negative factors associated with mining enterprises are liable to trigger a radical response from indigenous communities in Peru. These could translate in vandalism against mining equipment and violence against personnel.