Southern Copper getting more optimistic on stalled Peru mine

Bloomberg News | July 28, 2023 | 

Tia Maria mine. (Image courtesy of Southern Copper Corp.)

Southern Copper Corp. is growing more optimistic about being able to build a fiercely contested copper mine in the coastal mountains of Peru as sociopolitical tensions ease.


The company has been trying for years to convince local communities of the merits of the Tia Maria project. A 2019 decision to approve its license unleashed weeks of protests and former President Pedro Castillo singled it out as a non-starter. But the company says it’s been making progress with communities of late.


“Basically we are relatively much more optimistic than we were a year ago,” chief financial officer Raul Jacob told analysts on an earnings call Friday.

Developing the $1.4 billion project would be a major breakthrough in a country where the mining industry’s relations with isolated rural communities often sour. It’s part of Southern’s $15 billion pipeline of projects this decade.

(By James Attwood)