Peru copper mining almost ‘completely recovered’ from pandemic

Reuters | September 1, 2020 | 9:38 am Intelligence Latin America Copper

Peru’s mining sector slowed down in 2019

Las Bambas copper mine in Apurímac, Peru. (Image courtesy of Minera Las Bambas)

Copper mining in Peru, the world’s No. 2 producer, is almost completely recovered from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, a government official said on Tuesday.

Peru’s copper production, however, fell 2.2% in July, compared with the same period a year earlier, to 198,796 tons, under the weight of the pandemic, which restricted mining, the vice minister of energy and mines, Jaime Galvez, said in a virtual conference.

The Peruvian government decreed a quarantine due to the coronavirus in mid-March, with special restrictions on mining activity. The industry, a key economic engine for the Andean country, began to gradually normalize operations in May.

Earlier in August, the government said production of the red metal plunged 20.4% in the first half of 2020 versus the same period in 2019.

(By Marco Aquino and Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Chris Reese and Jonathan Oatis)