Peru Authorizes First-Stage Mining at Tía María’s La Tapada

Overview

• The Energy and Mines Ministry, in a resolution issued Friday, cleared Southern Peru Copper to start exploitation at the La Tapada pit, the project’s first stage.
• The approval covers only La Tapada and sends the notice to supervisors including Osinergmin, OEFA, Sunafil, Senace and Sucamec.
• Officials said the company met key paperwork, including surface land ownership, an archaeological clearance known as CIRA, and environmental certification backed by the project’s EIA and a 2018 Senace conformity.
• The ministry concluded that prior consultation under ILO Convention 169 does not apply because it found no indigenous or native peoples in the project’s direct area of influence.
• The sign-off follows this month’s annulment of an earlier permit that demanded fixes to waste dump design and the work schedule, and the new text, as RPP notes, does not state whether those points were resolved.