9 of the major players in the Peruvian mining industry
The Energy and Mines Minister of Peru has projected a mining investment recovery towards 2018, with global mining mega projects in the commercial operations stage representing a major contribution to GDP.
In a speech at the Building Peru: The Road to the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Minister Gonzalo Tamayo is “optimistic that we’ll see mining investment recovery signs by 2018.”
Peru is a country “endowed” with valuable natural resources. After Chile, it is actually the world’s third largest producer of copper and holds the third-largest known copper reserves.
Continuing this theme, Peru is the third largest producer of silver and the sixth largest global producer of gold.
Naturally, Peru has a strong local mining community as well as attracting some of the major players in the mining market. In fact, according to KPMG, the total value of mining investment in Peru is around $US10 billion.
Here, we look at 10 mining companies operating in Peru, both local companies and global mining players:
Zinc Industries Nacionales S.A. “ZINSA”
Founded in 1974, ZINSA produces non-ferrous zinc products to more than 47 countries. The company’s 20,500 m2 plant is located in El Callao, the chief seaport of Peru. 86 percent of the company’s production is exported worldwide.
The second largest underground gold mine in Peru (and the firth nationwide), Consorcio Minero Horizonte has been operating for 33 years. As a private company, it specialises in exploration, exploitation, extraction and development of gold and hydroelectric mineral resources. The company has on average a production of around 190 thousand ounces of gold.
A mining and metallurgical company located in the central Andes of Peru, Doe Run Peru owns the La Oroya metallurgical complex and the Cobriza mine. As one of the leading mining companies in the Centrak Andes of Peru, Doe Run was the fourth largest exporter in the country. The La Oroya complex is specialising in the development of – wait for it, copper, zinc, silver, lead, indium, bismuth, poly metallic, gold, selenium, tellurium and antimony – and breathe. Cobriza, one of the most mechanised underground mines in Peru, with a focus on copper production,
Formed in 2005, Fortuna has two low-cost underground operating mines in both Peru and Mexico. The company is “one of the fastest growing precious metal producers” in Latin America. Based on a mineral reserves and resources report as of December 2015, Fortuna is expecting an annual production of 7 million ounces of silver, 42.8 thousand ounces of gold, 42.5 million pounds of lead and 43.7 million pounds of zinc.
The company’s Peruvian copper operations, which involve mining, million and flotation of copper ore. Southern Copper own and operate the Toquepala and Cuajone mines high in the Andes Mountains, approximately 860 kilometers southeast of the city of Lima, Peru and a smelter and refinery west of the Toquepala and Cuajone mines in the coastal city of Ilo, Peru. The company was founded in 1954, with construction of the Toquepala mine beginning in 1954.
The mining giant has had a presence in Peru as far back as 1990. The company has been developing and exploring a number of copper deposits as well as exploration of iron, zin, borates and precious metal deposits in Peru. Some of the most significant deposit finds the company has made include Pampa de Pongo, Carhuacayan, Yanque Accha, Pukaqaqa, Tia Maria, El Aguila, Justa, Constancia, Corani and Ollachea. One of Rio Tinto’s leading Peruvian operations is the La Granja Project, a copper project in Cajamarca.
BHP Billiton
BHP Billiton partly owns a large, low-cost copper and zinc mine called Antamina in north central Peru. As of 2016, total copper and zinc production at the site was 146 kt of copper concentrate and 55kt of zinc concentrate.
Gold Fields, the global gold producer, owns and operates the Cerro Corona mine, located in the highest part of the western cordillera of the Andes Mountains in northern Peru. The open pit high margin and copper gold mine, produced around 830 tonnes per hour during 2015 and has a mining licence up until 2023.
The global mining company, founded in 1983, has gold operations in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Dominican Republic, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Zambia. With all those regions, more than 75 percent of the company’s entire gold production comes from the Americas region. In Peru, Barrick owns the Pierina mine, in the Andean Cordillera in north central Peru. The Pierina mine produced 54,000 ounces of gold in 2015
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