LIMA (Reuters) -Peru is evaluating the authorization of 134 mining exploration and exploitation projects worth an estimated investment of $6 billion, President Dina Boluarte said on Monday, as her government looks to boost revenues from the key industry.
Boluarte said in an address to Congress that by the end of this year she expected the formal small-scale mining sector to generate more than $5 billion in annual sales, and that $4.7 billion in formal projects should have started construction by 2026.
Officials in Peru, the world’s third-biggest copper producer, are currently in talks with informal miners who launched protests late June that blocked a key transport corridor for major miners including MMG and Glencore.
Tensions escalated after over 50,000 informal miners were removed from a formalization scheme, leaving just 31,000 that the government is seeking to bring in line with regulations by the end of this year.
Boluarte said the government was working on starting a private mining fund that would give small formal miners access to better financing.
(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Natalia Siniawski)
