After Pedro Castillo (Pedro Castillo) took office in Peru, the world's second-largest copper producer, Peru's mining industry wants to avoid draconian measures that stifle investment and future production.
Victor Gobitz, president of the Peruvian Association of Mining Engineering, said Castillo would measure political initiatives again during the presidential campaign.
During a tense and polarizing election process, Mr Castillo advocated nationalising energy assets, preventing miners from making high profits from big projects and using mining proceeds to change national poverty. Mr Castillo's claim has raised concerns among investors that tougher requirements on miners could affect investment, threatening growing global demand for copper.
But Mr Gobitz says that, unlike campaigning, Mr Castillo will have to fight a centre-right-dominated Congress if he is to actually implement these measures.
Gobitz, who is also head of the Antamina mine owned by BHP Billiton and Glencore, believes that as long as the dialogue between the two sides continues, the uncertainty will disappear.
Given that Peru is already the largest supplier of copper after Chile and a major producer of zinc and silver, the risk in the metal market is high. Its rich mining reserves are also key to obtaining enough copper to power the global economy in the coming decades.
Gobitz is expected to talk to Castillo's team in the coming days and plans to invite the president to a mining conference in September. He pinned his hopes on the new government's understanding of the importance of mining to economic and community development. Gobitz believes that even the Tia Maria project that Castillo opposes can proceed once his team has assessed all the benefits.
Castillo, a teacher from the plateau who has no previous national political experience, will take office on July 28. He will inherit an American country that suffers from the highest death rate of novel coronavirus in the world and has a deeper recession than any other major economy. Investors will keep a close eye on his first steps, including the composition of his cabinet.
Gobitz points out that there is no sign that mining companies are delaying spending. All of the country's major copper mines have returned to pre-outbreak production levels. The, Mina Justa mine, which started work this year, is in the late stage of development of the Quellaveco of, Anglo American Plc.
