Peru ramps up fight against illegal mining, kicks most informal miners off permit scheme

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By Marco Aquino

LIMA (Reuters) -Peru’s government has kicked 50,565 informal miners off a temporary program that allowed them to continue operations, the minister of energy and mines said on Friday. 

Only 31,560 miners will remain in the program that aims to formalize them and the government will reinforce its efforts against illegal mining, minister Jorge Montero told a local radio station.

The announcement came as hundreds of small-scale miners push for continued operations with protests and a blockade of a key copper corridor used by major miners MMG, Glencore and Hudbay. Peru is the world’s third-largest copper producer.

The government said at least 45,000 of the excluded miners had not registered any activity in the last four years. 

“We will strengthen our efforts to crack down on illegal mining throughout the country,” Montero said.

The program, called REINFO, was started in 2012 and meant to be a temporary way to formalize miners operating outside the law. It has since been extended multiple times but also criticized for enabling illegal mining that degrades the environment.

Government attempts to shutter the program have been met with fierce protests, and in late June, the government said it was extending the program until the end of 2025. 

Many workers have used the temporary permit to mine in prohibited areas or third-party property without having to comply with labor or environmental regulations, according to authorities and private mining companies.

This has led to deadly clashes in mining regions, leaving dozens dead in the last few years, prompting President Dina Boluarte to temporarily suspend mining in May in the country’s north after 13 gold mine workers were kidnapped and killed.

Maximo Becquer, who heads Peru’s National Confederation of Small and Artisanal Mining (Confemin), blasted the government’s move, saying it would impact half a million people who depend on the sector, and vowed to ramp up the protests.

“We ratify the strike until the government reverses these actions and violations against the right to work,” Becquer said in a post on social media.

(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Alexander Villegas; Editing by Sarah Morland, Aurora Ellis and Chizu Nomiyama )