An ongoing road blockade on Chinese miner MMG’s Las Bambas operation, one of Peru’s largest copper producers, is likely to affect output targets, the company said on Thursday.
Operations at the mine have been disrupted since Sept. 22, with roadblocks stopping supplies from getting through and preventing transport of concentrates to port facilities.
Las Bambas copper mine has been disrupted for more than 100 days so far this year.
“While there has been no impact to copper concentrate production to date, mining operations will begin to progressively be impacted unless inbound logistics can be restored within the next few days,” the company, controlled by state-owned China Minmetals Corporation, warned.
The blockade is not the first one
affecting Las Bambas this year. Overall, the mine has been disrupted for more
than 100 days so far with many of the more than 70 communities along the 450 km.
road to the Port of Matarani, demanding action from MMG and the national
government.
Protesters claim, among other issues, that their farmland has been cut by Peru’s national highway CU-135, known as the Southern Runway and that emissions from trucks are beyond permitted limits.
Environmental concerns
A three-month-long environmental assessment carried out by Peru’s Environmental Assessment and Control Agency (OEFA) and community members, recently concluded that Las Bambas’ trucks are contravening regulations when it comes to air, noise, land and water pollution.
The company was asked to install
dust suppressors in the towns that surround the road used by its trucks and
make sure to spray water on the way prior to the trucks passing, in order to
reduce the spread of dust particles.
The miner was also urged to stop
using the road that connects the towns of Velille and Ccapacmarca
between 6 p.m. and 5 a.m., a measure that will be monitored by the environmental
authority in real-time through GPS devices installed on the vehicles. Satellite
technology is also expected to allow OEFA staff to verify whether the trucks
are compliant with speed and load limits.
The regulator asked Las Bambas to
incorporate its demands into the company’s environmental assessment either by
updating or modifying it, an order that can be appealed by the miner.
MMG noted it’s working with local communities and authorities to resolve all issues.
Las Bambas is considered the world’s ninth-largest copper mine with an output of about 400,000 tonnes of the industrial metal per year, or about 2% of global production.
Operations at four of Peru’s top copper mines, accounting for about 50% of the country’s metal production, have been affected by local opposition. Other than Las Bambas, those mines include Freeport-McMoRan Inc’s Cerro Verde, Glencore’s Antapaccay and Hudbay Mineral’s Constancia.