By Marcelo Rochabrun
LIMA (Reuters) – Peru’s mining minister said on Thursday that unrest at the huge Las Bambas copper mine was partly caused by MMG Ltd’s short-sighted decision to rely on a dirt road to transport the metal, and called for a train line to be built instead.
“They made short-term decisions and that has a cost,” Energy and Mines Minister Ivan Merino told Reuters during an interview in Lima.
“If they had had a means of transport that is not what they currently have, we would not be facing today’s limitations.”
The dirt road is a social lightning rod, fiercely opposed by leaders in the communities it traverses. Leaders of one province, Chumbivilcas, blocked the road for three weeks until Wednesday, almost causing Las Bambas to suspend production of the red metal.
The tension is a key test for Peru’s left-wing President Pedro Castillo, who wants to increase the country’s mining wealth in order to fund social programs, but needs to balance those ambitions with the social unrest some mining projects create.
But Merino said a train would help defuse those tensions. While Merino has talked before of building a railroad in Peru’s Andes, this is the first time he calls for the train to reach the Las Bambas mine specifically.
Castillo is also seeking to renegotiate a natural gas contract with the Camisea Consortium of gas companies led by Argentina’s Pluspetrol in order to extract higher payments.
His prime minister recently tweeted that if Camisea did not agree to higher payments, Peru would nationalize the gas project.
Asked about whether nationalization was on the table, Merino, who also oversees natural gas, said he had “no opinion.”
“You are wasting an interview to ask about a tweet,” he said.
(Reporting by Marcelo Rochabrun; Writing by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
