






On Monday, some local communities resumed protests against the Las Bambas copper mine after the agreed dialogue did not take place and MMG Ltd did not attend a meeting on Sunday.
Residents of, MMG Ltd near the Las Bambas copper mine in the Peruvian Andes blocked a road to transport metal two weeks after the cease-fire, community leaders said on Tuesday.
The road, known as the mining corridor, passes through several areas of Chumbivilcas province in Cuzco, Peru.
"the community decided to restart the road blockade because the company did not want to participate in the conflict resolution dialogue," Walter Molina (Walter Molina), who represents the nearby community, said in a telephone interview.
The representative of MMG Peru declined to comment. Australia-based MMG is a subsidiary of China Minmetals, a state-owned company.
With an annual production of 400000 tons of copper, Las Bambas is one of the largest mines in Peru, and Peru itself is the second largest copper producer in the world.
There has been a long-standing conflict between indigenous agricultural communities and MMG mines, but it is an early test of Peru's new president Pedro Castillo's ability to deal with social unrest.
Chumbivilcas's community asked MMG to pay them to use a dirt road that starts at the Las Bambas mine and ends up on the Peruvian coast, where minerals are loaded onto ships.
They also say that too many trucks cross the road every day, and the spread of mineral dust can damage their crops.
The left-wing Castillo, who appointed a prime minister from Chunbierkas, said his government would give priority to the welfare of historically marginalized communities.
Residents and MMG reached a government-brokered cease-fire agreement that will last for more than a month, but MMG's failure to attend the scheduled meeting sparked community discontent.
For queries, please contact Lemon Zhao at lemonzhao@smm.cn
For more information on how to access our research reports, please email service.en@smm.cn