Peru's 5 largest greenfield mining projects

Peru's portfolio of 36 greenfield mining projects includes five requiring investment of more than US$2.5bn.

According to the BNamericas database, those projects are: Quellaveco, La Granja, El Galeno, Hierro Apurímac and Los Chancas, totaling US$19.3bn in investment.

1. QUELLAVECO

The US$5.3bn open pit copper porphyry project operated by Anglo American is the largest and is in the Moquegua region of southern Peru.

Once in operation, planned for 2022, Quellaveco will become one of the largest mines in Peru.

In the first five years of operations, production is expected to be 330,000t/y of copper and average of 300,000t/y in the first 10 years.

The mine will have an integrated operations center that will monitor in real time the entire process, from mining the deposit to the port operations.

The useful life of the mine is estimated at 30 years.

The electricity will come from renewable energy sources from Engie Energía Perú.

2. LA GRANJA

The US$5bn open pit copper project is in the prefeasibility stage. It is located in the Cajamarca region of northern Peru.

Its operator is London-based Rio Tinto. The date for the start of construction has not yet been defined.

The project still does not have a detailed environmental impact study.

3. EL GALENO

This is US$3.5bn open pit copper, gold, silver and molybdenum porphyry project.

It is located in Cajamarca and the operator is Lumina Copper.

The useful life of the mine is estimated at 20 years. There is still no date for the start of construction.

The project does not yet have a detailed EIS.

4. HIERRO APURÍMAC

The US$2.9bn iron oxide project is located in Apurímac region and is operated by Apurímac Ferrum, a subsidiary of Australia's Strike Resources.

It is an open pit project and the useful life is estimated at 20 years. Production is projected at 20Mt/y iron ore.

It does not yet have a detailed EIS and the construction start date has not been revealed.

5. LOS CHANCAS

This US$2.6bn open pit copper project is operated by Southern Copper, a subsidiary of Grupo México.

Annual production is estimated at 130,000t of copper and 7,500t of molybdenum. A date to start construction is pending.

Southern Copper plans to invest US$50mn in Los Chancas this year, mainly in social and environmental development issues and work in the communities, Southern Peru Copper CEO Jorge Meza said recently.