Protests Shutter 20% Of Peru's Copper, Silver And Zinc Mines

Sky-high metal prices and accelerating general inflation are fueling another uptick in resource nationalism and social unrest in Peru, among the top suppliers of copper, zinc, and silver, María Cervantes and James Attwood reported for Bloomberg.

Photo Insert: Las Bambas mine

As of Wednesday, April 20, about a fifth of the country’s copper output will be off-line as MMG Ltd.’s Las Bambas mine joins Southern Copper Corp.’s Cuajone in succumbing to community protests.

At the same time, unions in the mineral-rich Cusco region are staging strikes against rising prices, while residents near a Glencore Plc copper mine are preparing to resume protests.

To be sure, community conflicts are nothing new in Peru and some of the current unrest is more about protecting water supplies than grabbing a bigger share of the mineral spoils.

But having more than one major copper mine down at any one time is unusual, and this time around the mining protests are embedded in more generalized unrest over living costs that has inflamed an already tense political climate under President Pedro Castillo. Since the former rural activist from a Marxist party took office, the number of social conflicts is up about 7%.

With lawmakers discussing measures to appease the population’s pain from the fastest inflation in 24 years, politicians are looking to the mining industry to help foot the bill.

On Tuesday, Pedro Francke, a former Castillo finance minister, and moderate left-winger said more than $1 billion could be added to state coffers with a modest hike in mining taxes.

Others have tapped into the tensions to rekindle calls for more drastic measures. “The nationalization of strategic resources is the cornerstone of a country’s development,” Vladimir Cerron, founder of Castillo’s own party, wrote in a Twitter post.

The president, who has dodged two impeachment attempts since taking office in July, is being criticized by both the mining industry and some community groups.

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