The Peruvian government will send a delegation to the International Mining and Resources Conference to be held in Sydney over October 29‒31, to promote foreign investment in the country’s mining sector.
Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzén will give a lecture titled “Peru, a strategic destination for mining and energy investment”, while finance minister José Arista will give another called “Peru, a world-class country for mining investors”, presumably to offer up more of the country’s land for pillaging by transnational fossil fuel corporations.
For decades, transnational mining companies have polluted ecosystems and contaminated entire communities in Peru’s highlands. Corporations from the United States, Canada and Britain extract billions of dollars in profits and leave behind legacies of environmental destruction.
Australian-headquartered MMG Limited operates the Las Bambas mine, one of the world’s biggest copper mines. Despite local communities blockading and protesting the mine for years, Las Bambas continues operating, contaminating the air, soil and waterways.
US-based Newmont Corporation operates Yanacocha, South America’s biggest gold mine, which has caused a wide range of social and environmental impacts.
British-based mining giant Anglo American started extraction in 2022 of one the world’s biggest copper deposits in its Quellaveco mine, despite years of protests from local communities. The mine is diverting an entire river for use in mining operations, compounding hydrological problems in an already water-scarce region.
US-based The Mosaic Company controls Miski Mayo, an open-cut phosphate mine in the north, which impacts the local fishing and agriculture industry, as well as contaminating nearby communities.
Local communities in San Martín have been protesting over the past year against Canadian mining giant Hannan Metals’ plans to exploit copper and silver in the region, and blockaded a major road on October 19.
By now, many communities are aware of the profoundly negative impacts that mining operations leave behind.
Cerro de Pasco, a city of 80,000 people located next to a gigantic open-cut mine, is considered one of the most contaminated places in the world. Studies have found extremely high levels of heavy metal contamination in water, soil and food, which has severe health impacts.
About 10 million Peruvians (almost a third of the population) are contaminated with heavy metals, which mostly impacts indigenous communities.
The impacts of mining are expected to intensify due to the global demand for certain minerals, as mining companies seek to profit from the transition to renewable energy.
Peru produces so-called “transition minerals” — copper, iron, lead, molybdenum, silver, zinc, indium and graphite — used in renewable energy technologies.
But the energy transition of rich countries in the Global North should not come at the expense of the health, environment and social wellbeing of Peru’s communities.