Illegal Mining Should be Paying Government 500 M Soles A Year – Sunat

Illegal mining in Peru is costing the country more than 500 million soles (about $190 million) a year, according to tax agency Sunat.

Sunat said Friday that illegal mining produces some 18,000 kilograms of gold per year, which has a value of more than 2.2 billion soles, daily El Comercio reported.

If taxes were paid by the illegal miners, it would be equivalent to more than 500 million soles, or almost 0.1 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

About 85 percent of informal gold mining in Peru is centered in the south-eastern Read more…

Informal Miners Temporarily Suspend Protests in Madre de Dios

Informal miners in Peru’s south-eastern Madre de Dios department agreed on Thursday to temporarily lift protests that turned deadly on Wednesday, daily El Comercio reported.

The head of the Madre de Dios Mining Federation, Luis Otzuka, said that illegal and informal miners will suspend protests until Monday, when they plan to come to Lima to hold talks with the government.    The Minister of the Environment, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, expects to begin part of the talks this Saturday, although only with miners who accept to work within the mining corridor delimitations drawn up by the ministry.

“The truce will last while dialogue is ongoing. If we enter into real formalization, Read more…

Madre de Dios Authorities Call for State of Emergency to Push Back Violent Mining Protests

Amid calls for a state of emergency among regional leaders, Interior Minister Daniel Lozada said late Wednesday that police will push back against the informal miners who have escalated deadly protests in the region of Madre de Dios, located in Peru’s south-eastern Amazon basin.

Lozada said that more than 40 people have been arrested in the city of Puerto Maldonado, where informal miners have been protesting for the past 10 days. By the end of Wednesday, three people were reported killed and some 38 injured during clashes between protesters and police. Among the wounded are nine police.

“We are in a position to say that we are retaking control of the city and we aren’t Read more…

Peru Beefs Up Security In Illegal Mine Protests

Peru’s national police have increased security in the city of Puerto Maldonado, the capital of the south-east jungle region of Madre de Dios, during the third day of protests by informal miners, local media reported.

Peru’s largest circulation newspaper, El Comercio, said Wednesday that an extra 100 police officers were sent to the city. By Monday, the government had sent about 700 police officers to Madre de Dios to provide security during the start of the protests. Read more…

Valdes: Protesting Miners Largely From Outside Madre de Dios

Peruvian Cabinet Chief Oscar Valdes said most of the protesters taking part in demonstrations in Madre de Dios against laws that criminalize illegal mining are from other parts of the country.

According to Valdes, most of the local population in the south jungle region does not support the protests, which entered their third day on Wednesday.

“A large part of the Madre de Dios population is against illegal mining because the natives in the area are involved in other activities,” state news agency Andina reported Valdes as saying.

Some 30,000 people are involved in informal and illegal mining in the Read more…

Peru Sets Prison Sentence Guidelines for Illegal Mining

The Executive, in a move to bring widespread informal mining under control, has incorporated the activity into the Criminal Code and set sentence guidelines for convictions on charges of undertaking unauthorized exploration, extraction and development of mineral resources, and causing damage to the environment through such activities.

D.L. 1102, published Feb. 29 in the official gazette El Peruano, considers sentences of between four to eight years’ imprisonment for these crimes, and up to 10 years on convictions for mining in unauthorized areas —natural reserves and peasant or indigenous community lands— as well as using river dredges, and contaminating irrigation or water systems used by humans.

The sentences also apply in the case of employing minors in the industry, and to Read more…

Presidents of Peru and Ecuador Hold Day-Long Binational Meeting

The Presidents of Peru and Ecuador, and their cabinet chiefs and ministers, are holding a full day of meetings today in the north coast city of Chiclayo, to discuss binational integration issues.  Members of Congress are also holding parallel meetings.

President Ollanta Humala welcomed President Rafael Correa shortly after 9:30am February 29 at the Gran Hotel Chiclayo, where most of the presentations and meetings are being held. Later in the afternoon, the formal signing of documents and agreements will take place at the iconic Lord of Sipan Museum, just north of the city in Lambayeque.

This is the fifth presidential meeting between both countries in the past 15 years, an effort initiated Read more…

Peru To Spend $57 Million On Homes For Quake Victims

Peru’s government plans to spend more than 160 million soles (approximately $57 million) to build 10,000 homes this year in areas that have been hit by the August 2007 earthquake, said Ana Jara, the minister of Women and Vulnerable Populations.

Jara said the houses will be provided to residents in Ica region, where the damage from the quake was most pronounced. They will also be provided to areas that were affected in the neighboring regions of Lima and Huancavelica, state news Read more…

Three Missing After Landslide Hits Mine Camp

Three people are missing following a landslide that hit a work camp in the Ancash region owned by the small mining company San Juan, state news agency Andina reported. 

The landslide occurred early Wednesday morning as heavy rains caused the flooding of Encantada lake, in the district of Llapo.

Members of the civil defense institute in Ancash are traveling to the area to Read more…

Heavy Rains Strand Tourists En Route To Machu Picchu

Approximately 200 tourists who were heading to Peru’s ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchu were stranded due to heavy rains, newspaper El Comercio reported Tuesday.

The tourists were stuck in the Colcamayo zone, in the district of Santa Teresa, on an alternative road to Machu Picchu, the daily said.

Some of the tourists, including approximately 80 Chileans, decided to continue on Read more…

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