In Peru's hills, an artisanal miner boom frustrates Big Copper's plans

WORLD

In Peru’s hills, an artisanal miner boom frustrates Big Copper’s plans

Artisanal miners work in an area where hundreds of other artisanal miners have found a rich seam of copper in the hills of Tapairihua in Peru's Andes, in October. | REUTERS

By Marco Aquino and Marcelo Rochabrun
REUTERS

Dec 2, 2022

TAPAIRIHUA, Peru – In the hills of Tapairihua in Peru’s Andes, Samuel Retamozo and other artisanal miners have found a rich seam of copper on their indigenous community’s land. Armed with temporary government permits, they started exploiting it earlier this year.

There’s just one problem — the seam is within the site of Southern Copper’s planned $2.6 billion Los Chancas mine. One of the world’s biggest copper miners, it also has a permit to dig in the same area.

Grupo Mexico’s Southern Copper aims to start producing here in 2027 after decades of studies. The planned mine is crucial to the company’s goal of producing 1.8 million metric tons of copper annually by 2030.