Chinese miner MMG eyes acquisition to boost copper production

LIMA: Chinese miner MMG Ltd expects to invest US $2 billion over the next five years to expand its troubled Las Bambas copper mine in Peru and is eyeing potential acquisitions to increase production, an executive said on Tuesday.

The Perumin mining conference parent company MMG hopes to double copper production by 2025 and double it by 2030, according to Las Bambas General Manager Edgardo Orderique.

The mine is expected to produce 240,000 tons of copper in 2022, after years of production drops due to falling ore grades and social conflicts.

Peru is the world's No 2 copper producer and Las Bambas is one of the largest producers of the red metal in the world.

In 2016 in the Peruvian Andes, Las Bambas opened but has suffered recurrent disruptions from indigenous communities who say its vast mineral wealth has not translated into better living conditions.

The disruptions reached a new peak this year when members of two neighbouring communities settled inside Las Bambas, forcing the company to suspend all operations for over 50 days.

Since 2016 the cost of the conflict has been over 528 days of interrupted operations, about a year and a half of which we have gone through this situation, according to Orderique.

Most of the disruptions affected copper trucking, rather than copper mining.

Las Bambas is trying to build a second pit, but work has been halted due to opposition from the indigenous Huancuire community, which used to own the land where the project is scheduled to be built.

Orderique hoped that the pit could be built in the following months to compensate for falling ore grades at the current pit.

MMG has previously stated that it will not go forward with the project until it has reached an enduring agreement with the Huancuire community.