Peru Seeks Mining Investment Amid Local ‘Chaos’

• Peru is looking to put the "chaos" of months-long protests earlier this year behind it to revitalize flagging mining investment in the world's no. 2 copper-producing nation, even as executives demand more stability to boost spending.
• As a mining conference in the southern Andean region of Arequipa got started this week, Prime Minister Alberto Otarola addressed concerns about political instability and protests that have led to an expected 18% drop in mining investment this year.
• "We are not going to allow the country to fall into chaos, disorder and insecurity," Otarola told hundreds of gathered mining business leaders, adding the government was also working to streamline environmental permitting regulations.
• In interviews with Reuters, senior executives said that while things had improved since major nationwide protests at the start of the year, governance remained weak, while unclear rules and red tape for issues such as using contractors and securing environmental permits remained an obstacle to new investment.
• Copper output has rebounded this year, but sliding investment in the Andean country, which has had six presidents in the last five years, has put production and the wider economy at risk. Mining makes up 60% of Peru's total exports.
• "Peru has been growing and that is good, but at the institutional level we have not grown at the same speed, with the level of political maturity," Victor Gobitz, president of Peru's biggest copper mine Antamina said. "We have a fragmented political system, which takes its toll on the entire country."

(Source: Reuters)