Leading foe rejects new plan for Peru mine

LIMA, Peru -- A prominent regional leader who has led protests against a $4.8-billion gold and copper mining project in northern Peru said he opposed a new offer made by President Ollanta Humala and Newmont Mining.

Under the new plan, reservoirs would be built to expand by 10 times the water storage capacity of existing lakes near the proposed site of the mine. With Humala’s backing, Newmont Mining said the reservoirs would address the concerns of residents that the Conga project could endanger water supplies.

But in a telephone interview, Gregorio Santos, president of the Cajamarca region, said Humala and Newmont had both lost credibility. Santos said he and other opposition leaders in northern Peru were sticking to their demand that an independent environmental impact study be carried out before the project goes ahead.

The Cajamarca region is where Newmont operates the Yanacocha open-pit gold mine, one of the largest in the world.

“Humala says he wants dialogue, but he has not listened to the people of Cajamarca,” Santos said. “Now we don’t believe him, and he is only repeating the words of economic power groups.”

In an address to the nation Saturday, Humala said the Conga project would go forward  and promised that water supplies would not be compromised.

“Water comes first, that’s the condition,” he said. “My government would never permit the development of any mining project that exposes the population to the loss of water or the lack of quality standards required for human consumption.” '

Mining has been a prime engine of Peru’s stellar economic growth over the last decade, luring billions of investment dollars amid a global commodities boom. Humala has said he needs the taxes and royalties from the Conga project, which was approved by his predecessor, to help pay for ambitious social programs.

Observers say the project is also a gauge of Humala's commitment to foreign investment despite his leftist rhetoric during his successful presidential campaign last year.

Colorado-based Newmont says the mining design is sound and there is no need for the months-long delay that would result from carrying out another environmental study. Company Vice President Carlos Santa Cruz said recently that Newmont was willing to address any mistakes of the past, reach “a new state of understanding” with residents and contribute to a $49-million social works fund.

Peasant protests over mining projects in Cajamarca in December and in Espinar province to the south in May prompted the government to declare states of emergency, suspending the right to assembly and other constitutional protections. Unlike with the standoff in Cajamarca, protesters against the $1.5-billion Espinar project proposed by Swiss-based Xstrata are negotiating with the company.

“We will not accept Conga," said Santos, the regional president. "There are projects in Peru that are just going to sit there because the people feel they would mean abandoning their natural resources. Cajamarca will continue resisting.”

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Photo: Hundreds of people demonstrate against the Conga mining project in Cajamarca, in the mountains of northern Peru, in May. Credit: Francisco Vigo/European Pressphoto Agency

Peru police arrest mayor who led mine protests

LIMA, Peru --  Peruvian police on Wednesday arrested a mayor who supported protests against a mining project in southeastern Peru amid violence that  prompted President Ollanta Humala to declare a state of emergency this week.

Espinar Mayor Oscar Mollohuanca, one of the principal leaders of a weeklong protest against a $1.5-billion expansion of the Tintaya copper mine, was forcibly detained at City Hall and later transferred to a jail in Cusco. The apparent reason was his support of a general strike in defiance of Humala's emergency decree.

More than a dozen police officers entered City Hall to arrest Mollohuanca as he was meeting with other city officials,  television reports said.

Over the last several days, violent protests have left two civilians dead and at least 70 police officers injured in Espinar province. The proposed project would be an expansion of a mine operated by Xstrata of Switzerland.

 Humala's emergency decree on Tuesday suspended constitutional rights, including freedom of speech and assembly.

Local residents have complained about Xstrata's hiring practices and alleged environmental violations, as well as claiming the  royalties paid to local governments are too small.

 At least 1,500 police officers were sent to Espinar province by Humala in a bid to restore order. Another protest leader, Herbert Huaman, was arrested Tuesday.

Also on Wednesday, protesters announced  a general strike in northern Cajamarca province in protest of the Conga mining project proposed by Newmont Mining of Colorado. The $4.8-billion project has been in abeyance for several months since Humala declared a state of emergency there as well after  widespread protests.

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Photo: A protester in Peru prepares to sling a rock at police during clashes linked to a strike against Swiss miner Xstrata. Credit: Fredy Hurtdado / European Pressphoto Agency

  

 

Peru declares state of emergency after violence at mine protests

LIMA, Peru -- The Peruvian government on Tuesday declared a state of emergency in a southeastern province after eight days of protests over a proposed expansion of a huge copper mine left at least two residents dead and 70 police injured.

The government's emergency declaration covers the province of Espinar and suspends constitutional liberties of speech and assembly for 30 days. The government also ordered the arrest of a protest leader, Herbert Huaman, who heads the Front for the Defense of Espinar Interests.

Violence in Espinar broke out over the weekend after President Ollanta Humala described  demonstrators protesting a $1.5-billion expansion of the Tintaya mine as leftist radicals. Widespread property damage was reported, as was the brief kidnapping of a judge.

Humala used a similar state of emergency decree in December to squelch protests in northern Cajamarca over the proposed Conga mine, a project Humala was counting on to finance his ambitious social agenda.  The government is now reviewing the $4.8-billion Conga copper and gold mine project, but Humala's strong defense of mining has distanced him from part of his impoverished support base.

The protests involve mainly peasant communities and resemble demonstrations held last year in Cajamarca, where residents waged a long-running and still unresolved campaign against the Conga project proposed by Colorado–based Newmont Mining.

Residents in Espinar complain that mining firm Swiss-based Xstrata doesn’t hire enough local workers, violates environmental laws and transfers too low a percentage of mining royalties to the local municipalities.

In a statement Tuesday, Xstrata said it lamented the violence and was ready to discuss residents’ complaints, but it insisted, as it has in the past, that it is fulfilling its social and economic obligations. The company said it would be willing to initiate new environmental monitoring procedures to assure compliance.

Social conflict expert Javier Torres of the Lima-based SER civil society group said the violence could have been avoided, and he blamed the government’s slow response to simmering tensions.

“The reluctance of the government to intervene before the conflict reached a level of violence, and of the [protest] leaders to dialogue, added to the silence of the Tintaya mine’s management, have been causes of these tragic events,” Torres said in an interview.

The global commodities boom has made mining Peru’s biggest industry, fueling the nation’s economic growth to an expected 6% this year. Mining attracted $21 billion in foreign investment from 1996 through 2010. Over the last half of 2011, Xstrata was the largest single mining investor in Peru, with $450 million plowed into its projects.

Analysts such as Torres say the perception of Peru as a mining mecca could be hurt unless community relations improve.

“As long as the government considers that [social] inclusion means the distribution of resources  according to a certain formula, and that those who protest are sheep being led by a handful of radical extremists, there will be no solution to these conflicts,” Torres said.

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Photo: Peruvian President Ollanta Humala. Credit: Jeon Heon-Kyun / European Pressphoto Agency

Peru ministers resign over antidrug sweep

LIMA, Peru -- Peru’s  defense and interior ministers resigned Thursday shortly after the Congress opened a debate to consider censuring them for their handling of an antiterror and antinarcotics operation in a valley known for coca cultivation and the presence of the leftist rebel group Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path.

Defense Minister Luis Alberto Otarola and Interior Minister Daniel Lozada resigned after legislators blamed them for the deaths of 10 soldiers and police officers conducting drugs sweeps over the last month in a region known as VRAE, or the Valley of the Apurimac and Ene rivers. Rebels are suspected in the killings.

The toll is higher than that suffered by the armed forces during all of 2011, when nine police officers and soldiers were killed in similar sweeps. Critics charged that the recent operations were poorly planned.

President Ollanta Humala is on a state visit to South Korea and Japan, but his office confirmed the resignations. Had the censure come to a vote in Congress, it could have provoked a political crisis for his administration.

The VRAE has become an increasingly important center of coca farming and cocaine processing because stronger law enforcement in Colombia is pushing traffickers southward to neighboring Peru and Bolivia. Peru may overtake Colombia this year as the world’s largest coca farming nation and cocaine producer in the annual survey that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime is scheduled to release next month.

The recent sweep, which involved 1,500 police and soldiers, has been called off. The operation was prompted partly by the kidnapping of 36 natural gas workers near Cuzco last month. The Shining Path group, which released the workers shortly thereafter, claimed responsibility.

The rebels are active players in the upsurge of Peruvian cocaine production, counternarcotics officials here have said. The rebel group has reemerged from near extinction in the 1990s, when it steered clear of drug trafficking as a violation of revolutionary ethics. Now authorities believe the rebels traffic in drugs to finance their insurgency.

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Photo: Peru's defense minister, Luis Alberto Otarola, seen in a file photo, was one of two Cabinet members to resign over antidrug raids that saw 10 soldiers and police officers killed. Credit: Eraldo Peres / Associated Press

Peru miners rescued; kidnappers hold gas-field workers

 

LIMA, Peru -- Nine Peruvian miners trapped for six days in the collapse of a copper mine were rescued Wednesday, most walking out under their own power and wearing sunglasses against the light.

"Mission accomplished!" proclaimed President Ollanta Humala after the rescue at the mine in the southern region of Ica. Humala had flown to the zone the day before to oversee the rescue operation.

Rescuers were able to communicate with the trapped miners with a hose they lowered into the pit. It was also used to send oxygen, liquid nourishment and medicines.

The mine was not operating with proper permits, and Humala said the cave-in underscored the dangers faced by so-called informal  miners. Illegal mining, said to produce as much as $2 billion in metals annually, also does terrible damage to the environment and public health, his government has said.

Wednesday's rescue echoed the 2010 evacuation of 33 Chilean miners who had been entombed half a mile below ground for more than two months.

But as Peruvians celebrated the good news, another crisis was still playing out.

In the Andean region of Cuzco, 36 workers for gas-extracting companies have been kidnapped by guerrillas from the resurgent Shining Path group, officials from the firms said Wednesday. They have been held at least two days, and on Wednesday the government declared a 60-day state of emergency for the zone, which makes it easier for the army to deploy.

An estimated 550 army and police troops have fanned out through the area in search of Shining Path camps.

About 30 heavily armed guerrillas burst into three hotels and seized 39 workers. Three were released.

Shining Path emerged in the late 1970s as a Maoist faction aimed at toppling the Peruvian government. It was largely wiped out in the last two decades but has recently made a comeback, including being involved in drug trafficking.

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Photo: Peruvian President Ollanta Humala, center, waves alongside nine miners rescued in the Ica region. Credit: Cris Bouroncle / AFP/Getty Images

Peru's president swears in new cabinet chief amid mine crisis [updated]

Updated at 7:30 p.m., Dec. 11:

[REPORTING FROM LIMA, PERU AND BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- His young presidency knee-deep in crisis over a disputed mining project, Peru's Ollanta Humala on Sunday swore in a new cabinet chief to replace a close associate as part of a leadership reshuffling that included the replacement of 10 of 19 ministers.

Oscar Valdes became cabinet chief, replacing Salomon Lerner, whose resignation was announced Saturday.]

Humala, a former army officer who took office in July, favors a $4.8-billion gold and copper mine in northern Peru opposed by residents of the Cajamarca region. He declared a 60-day state of emergency Dec. 4, suspending freedom of assembly and other constitutional rights, after two weeks of protests by opponents of the Conga mining project closed roads, schools and businesses.

“The president will make some adjustments according to his constitutional rights,” Valdes told reporters Saturday night, following news of Lerner's surprise resignation and media reports that other possible cabinet changes are planned. “There will be no reorganization; the road map remains in place.”

Peru's Humala declares state of emergency as protests continue

REPORTING FROM LIMA, PERU, AND BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- Digging in his heels against opponents of a huge gold and copper mining project, Peruvian President Ollanta Humala declared a 60-day state of emergency and called on residents to maintain “serenity and calm.”

Humala, a left-leaning former army officer who took office in July largely on the strength of support from poor voters, reacted to a continuing stalemate between the central government and impoverished groups in the Cajamarca region of northern Peru. Many residents fear the Conga project could ruin their water supply.

The Peruvian leader also ordered that army troops be mobilized to support police in the region, where some constitutional rights have been suspended under the emergency decree.

“Representatives of the [Roman] Catholic Church and public advocates have exhausted the means to establish a dialogue” with protesters, Humala said in a speech Sunday night. Blaming the “intransigence” of unnamed local and regional leaders, he said the government has been unable to reestablish public services suspended since widespread protests began late last month.

Copper and gold mine project in Peru suspended in face of protests

REPORTING FROM LIMA, PERU, AND BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- Faced with increasingly violent local opposition, the developers of the giant Conga gold and copper mine in northern Peru suspended the project late Tuesday night, saying they were bowing to a demand from the government of President Ollanta Humala.

Much of the northern district of Cajamarca has been paralyzed the last six days by general strikes called by Conga opponents that closed businesses and schools. Residents were concerned that the massive gold and copper mine could pollute the region’s water supply, a charge the mine’s operators, led by Colorado-based Newmont Mining, strenuously denied.

The situation became more violent Tuesday, as protesters burned an office at the site of the proposed mine and clashes between protesters and police in the area left 17 injured and two arrested. Thousands of demonstrators massed in the central square of Cajamarca, the region’s largest city.

As proposed, Conga would be a giant open pit gold mine similar to the Yanacocha mine 20 miles to the north, which is also operated by Newmont. But it would include a copper mine and smelter.

Newmont has proposed investing $4 billion in the new project, which could produce between 580,000 and 680,000 ounces of gold a year. The government had projected it would receive royalties and taxes totaling $800 million annually once the mine was fully operational after 2014, income the left-leaning Humala government was counting on to finance social and infrastructure projects.

The project was initially approved by former President Alan Garcia and given the stamp of approval by Humala, who took office in July. His support of the project was seen as his way of assuring foreign multinationals that his government would be investor-friendly.

As of late Tuesday, Humala had not commented on the Conga suspension.

The mine’s developers said in a statement: “We reiterate that we will make the utmost effort to abide by the demands of the government of President Ollanta Humala for responsible mining.”

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Photo: An Andean woman protests during a march against the proposed mine on Nov. 24, 2011. Opponents are concerned it would pollute the region's water supply. Credit: Enrique Castro-Mendivil/Reuters