Peruvian government accused of wanting to cancel Tía María project

On Thursday, Peruvian minister of Energy and Mines Rosa María Ortiz made clear that the Peruvian government has no interest in prematurely canceling the Tía María copper project. She explained that the Peruvian government has no reason to suspend the project, and that this decision would need to be made by Southern Copper, the mining company in charge of the project. Minister Ortiz added that the government is still open to a dialogue to resolve the conflict over the project, but that both sides would need to name valid, respectable representatives.

Carlos Gálvez, president of Peru’s SNMPE mining chamber, called for the temporary suspension of the Tía María project for four months on Thursday, in order to provide time to quell the violent protests and restart negotiations. He said, “We should give ourselves a space to avoid the continued escalation of violence, because no project can be imposed by force; a truce would be convenient; we should look to suspend activities for a time in order to discuss the project.”

Gálvez believes that this would give Southern Copper and the Peruvian government time to explain to the local communities that the project does not pose a threat either to the environment or to local agriculture. According to Gálvez, Southern Copper is interested in the idea of a temporary suspension.

In oil-related news, Peruvian state-owned oil company Perúpetrol announced that the country will finally auction off its largest oil field on July 15, ending months of uncertainty over what would happen to the 1AB oil field. According to the announcement, the new oil concession will be for 30 years, and has drawn interest from Chinese, South Korean, and French companies. Interest has been tempered, however, by the oil field’s lengthy history of protests from the surrounding local communities.