Mining protests turn deadly in Peru

Michael Allan McCrae | September 30, 2015 | 10:05 am Base Metals Precious Metals Latin America Copper Gold Molybdenum Silver 

Protests at MMG’s Las Bambas mine in Peru resulted in four fatalities and 16 people seriously injured yesterday, said the company in statement.

A state of emergency has been imposed at the Apurimac region near the Las Bambas Project. The government has sent army and police to the region to restore order.

Las Bambas is a multi-billion dollar mining project at an advanced stage of production. The company says that Las Bambas is expected to be one of the top three copper producing mines in the world and is currently one of the largest copper projects in construction on a copper resource basis.

The company said tensions are still high. Changes to the environmental plans have angered protesters. Apurímac regional president Wilber Venegas told BNA what is upsetting some residents:

The local population objects to China Minmetals’ decision to scrap a mineral slurry pipeline and build a molybdenum plant in Apurímac instead of in Cusco, Venegas said. Under Peruvian law, changes in previously approved environmental impact studies don’t require additional public hearings.

“These people fear there will be environmental damages in their area, and the information hasn’t been properly communicated,” Venegas told reporters in Lima. “The government needs to form a high-level delegation to go to the area and solve these problems.”

MMG Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Michelmore said the company is working with residents.

“Our focus remains on ensuring the safety of the people located at the site and the local community, as well securing the site itself. As a result, late stage commissioning activities are now suspended.

“Clearly our preference is for those organising these protests to stop the violence, respect the orders of the military and police and to speak with us.

“The Las Bambas team has maintained positive dialogue with the Cotabambas and Grau communities of Apurimac over close to ten years of project development.”

MMG is a Chinese owned company. It purchased the Las Bambas project from Glencore plc in August 2014.

Las Bambas is located in Peru, 4km NW of Chahuahuacho District. Image courtesy of IntelligenceMine.

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3 Comments

  • boomer1941

    China is good at raping resources, look what they’ve done to their own Country.

  • Matt

    It seems all the comments have missed the point. The protests were not anti-mining but instead related to a very poor communication of what changes in the mining plan were. If I lived there and a pipeline was replaced by settling ponds etc, I would want to have studies as well. The people are in the right on this particular matter and PS: I am in the mining business.

  • Manco Capac

    I worked in the mountains of Peru for a while and most people dont understand that the campesinos have been ignored by the central goverment for hundreds of years and a mine is the only way to get their communties out of brutal poverty. Unfortunately most mining companies thing payoffs during project development and over the life of mine equate to sustainability. I heard of one mine in Peru that put in a Renewable energy installation and gave 5% of the power do the community during life and 90% following the closure of the mine. They had zero protests during the project construction and the first 2 years. True sustainability, ie something beyond the life of mine, is the key to community relations in Peru and other poor countries.

    Trying to convince senior mining executives of this is like talking to a piece of rock. Their prime concern is not giving away too much rather than avoiding protests for the life of project and life of mine, or in fact actually caring about the community in which you are setting up your operations.

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