144 days of blockade have been completed in the Mining Corridor

On July 23, a week before the assumption of Pedro Castillo to the Presidency, and when the results of the second round were already known, the population of the peasant communities of the Cusco province of Chumbivilcas decided to resume old demands to block the road that prevents the transport of vehicles from The Bambas, in Apurímac, considered one of the largest copper producers in the country controlled by the Chinese MMG Ltd, and one of the most important in the Southern Mining Corridor. They go 144 days, of which 139 correspond to the government of Castillo, including the 60 that ex-minister Guido Bellido requested as a truce, which was not completed either.

This corridor, embedded in the heart of the Andes of Apurímac, Cusco and Arequipa, together with the operations of Puno, Moquegua and Tacna, it concentrates a portfolio of projects valued at more than US $ 27,000 million: about 50% of the mining investment projected at the national level (US $ 56,158 million). However, it has also historically been the pole of greatest social conflict associated with mineral exploitation, and the main focus of criticism of environmental management and support by the State for at least two decades.

There are three major projects located in the corridor: Antapaccay Tintaya, from Glencore (Cusco); Constancia, from Hudbay (Cusco); and Las Bambas, today MMG (Apurímac) and matter of controversy because, according to its own estimates, this week it should stop its operations. In front, four presidents who could not contain the conflict on the route: Humala, PPK, Vizcarra and Sagasti. Castillo could be the fifth.

“This is not a problem that arises with this Government, it comes from much further back. However, what the Government does have now is the opportunity to lead the process and take the solution on the correct course ”, says Victor Gobitz, president of the Institute of Mining Engineers of Peru (IIMP).

And it is that the south has been an area of ​​strong mining expansion in the last two decades. The historical mine has been Espinar, in Cusco, which began to produce in the mid-eighties, when it was still a public company. That was the first mining operation in what is now known today as the Southern Mining Corridor, although none of that existed at that time.

As the former Vice Minister of Environmental Management José de Echave refers, the milestone for the configuration of this corridor was the beginning of the construction of Las Bambas. The State transfers the project with a purchase option in 2004, which is obtained by the Swiss company Xstrata. At that time, the company that owned Tintaya, BHP Billiton, and which had also participated with great expectation in the competition for the Cotabambas deposit, announced to its counterpart that –facing defeat– it would sell its settlement in Cusco, as it envisaged an integrated operation with Apurímac. That’s why Xstrata buys Tintaya, and at that time the pipeline made sense. That is where the Southern Mining Corridor begins to be structured.

“After Xstrata is taken over by Glencore, Glencore gains global copper dominance. To consolidate its operation, it needed authorization from three major economies: the US, the European Union and China. The first two give him the go-ahead, but the Chinese ask him to dispose of at least one operation. This is why Glencore was forced to sell Las Bambas to MMG. In the end, the two operations ended up divided and the pipeline no longer made sense ”, recalls the specialist.

Indeed, in 2013, shortly after the approval of the Environmental Impact Study (EIA) for the construction of the mine pipeline that was to join its veins in Tintaya and Las Bambas, Glencore Xstrata announced the sale of the latter to the Chinese MMG for about of US $ 5,850 million, plus the money spent by the Swiss since the beginning of 2014 in the construction of the mine (rounding the US $ 7,000 million), and the need for a tube between the two reservoirs is ending.

In this way, Tintaya del Cusco remained in the hands of the Glencore Xstrata merger, while Las Bambas de Apurímac went to the MMG deck, in an operation closed in April 2014, when the second mine had not been completed. They had even planned to deliver two million tons of concentrate in their first five years of operation, since 2015. The problem arises because, since there is no longer a pipeline, the only affordable way to transport the copper to the ports of Matarani, in Arequipa ( previous stopover by train), it would be by dump trucks, a polluting solution not consulted with the totality of residents.

Two mines, one corridor

Rómulo Mucho, president of Agromin, an organization that seeks community between mining and agriculture, remembers his time as Vice Minister of Mines in the corridor during the Tintaya conflict, years ago, in 2005. His delegation, which was installed after The taking of the mine was a first catalyst space that lowered the belligerent spirits and allowed its reopening. He reflects, however, that The problems on the corridor do not focus only on the differences between the company and the population, but on the weak mediation of the State. Proof of this is that the conflict in Espinar rebounded.

“What happens in Peru is that people are not invested. They will always be demanding more money, but there is money. What is needed, from the State, is to learn to spend, and the best investment will always be education. This problem of conflict management on the part of the authorities can cause us, as a country, to lose an irreplaceable opportunity for development ”, Mucho asserts.

Gobtiz has a similar position, who emphasizes the mediating importance of the authorities at all levels to put an end to these conflicts in the corridor that, according to the businessmen of the sector, could represent a loss of US $ 9.5 million per day. This, after its production was reduced by social unrest, going from 450,000 to 270,000 tons this year.

“It is clear that the solution is not to be rentiers, because, if you return to the rentier population, the day the rent ends, it returns it to its previous situation. Becoming a contractor, part of the production chain, is a quick but partial solution. Admittedly, it does help, but in the long run it does not solve the underlying problem. The Government needs to use its leadership capacity to frame the vision that we have about that territory in two or three more decades, and based on that use these resources to enhance its virtues, ”he says.

This week will be key, since the time offered by the MMG mining company is running out (mid-December) to paralyze its operations in Las Bambas, due to the fact that it is not supplied with supplies due to the blockade of Chumbivilcas. Its stoppage would leave more than 9,000 workers unemployed. According to the general secretary of the mine workers’ union, Erick Ramos, some 2,000 injured are from the Arequipa region.

Not everything is Las Bambas

The third giant, Hudbay, it is one hundred kilometers from Tintaya, after an open pass, in a ‘pamposa’ area –as Mucho recalls– and closer to the sea, as well as other projects such as Cerro Verde, Cuajone, Quellaveco and Toquepala. However, he is not free from rants. With Livitaca, Chamaca, there are also conflicts. There they are asking for a new framework agreement where they are included as an area of ​​direct influence. There is a table that has installed Minem and PCM, but without significant progress.

Meanwhile, Flavio Huanqque, president of Alto Huancané (Espinar), maintains that the eleven communities in the area of ​​influence of Antapacay expect a meeting for this Tuesday the 14th with the Ministry of Energy and Mines (Minem) and the PCM in the Centro Poblado Tintaya Marquiri to address the repair plan, omission of prior consultation, the emergency fund, health, economic reactivation and community fee.

“They have to come to answer the letters that we have sent about the dialogues that we have held. Now, on the subject of prior consultation, they have already sent us a draft addendum that we have to observe or approve. Surely that addendum we have to sign on the 14th, and on January 17th we would be starting according to a multicommunal meeting schedule with the gentlemen of Minem. There will also be the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Environment, Health, Agriculture. Everything is programmed ”, he indicates.

The query Huanqque refers to is for the Antapacay-Expansión Tintaya Integración-Coroccohuayco project.

“The eleven communities have suspended the uprising, but at any time also, if they do not attend to us, we are going to restart it, this time in a staggered manner. If we are not attended to the entire agenda, we will have to close the Las Bambas, Hudbay and Antapaccay pass, in the corridor. The ball is in the court of the Peruvian State. The provincial agenda of Espinar and five districts is being handled in another space ”, he assures.

For his part, Edgar Huaranga, former president of the Espinar Defense Front, explains that, at this moment, there are three open dialogue tables on social, provincial and economic development, but those tables have not had a good end. Only some have come to fruition and have been fulfilled, such as the health issue. A hospital was requested and at the moment it is under construction by the public treasury.

“There is a dialogue with the company about evaluating the environment and people’s health due to contamination, but those tables are paralyzed. The relationship between the population and Xstrata has not been good before, not now. We do not live peacefully. An indefinite strike can come at any moment. With the change of government, next year’s election year has made the population retreat. I am very sure that he will return to the charge again because there are unresolved issues, “contextualizes the representative.

Confronted population

A group of businessmen from the district of Challhuahuacho, Apurímac, arrived in Lima last week to talk with President Castillo about the local problems generated by the blockade of the corridor.

“We are a group of businessmen who represent different organizations and associations. This stoppage is affecting our right to work. In the event that this issue is not resolved immediately, the public sector will request compensation, as will the private sector because the losses are according to the investment ”, said the representative Sandra Guzmán for National Radio.

This has been warned by De Echave as one of the latent risks of the lack of support from the State during the company-population mediation: the rupture between Peruvians. And we are living it.

In search of agreement in Las Bambas

MMG Las Bambas expanded its offer to Chumbivilcas (Cusco) in order to lift the blockade of the mining corridor.

It was known that The mining company proposed for the Chumbivilcas communities a fleet of 14 trucks, 12 vans and investments in projects of S / 1 million per year.

For its part, Chumbivilcas will present a counterproposal and summoned the mining company for this Tuesday in order to analyze its initiative. They hope to reach a consensus.

The president of the Front for the Defense of the Interests of the Province of Chumbivilcas, Wilbert Fuentes, explained to La República Sur that they will propose that a sum of S / 1 million 200,000 is considered, which will be invested in projects and in the purchase of machinery that they need for agriculture activity.

The numbers

$ 27 billion is the value of the corridor’s portfolio of projects.

9,000 workers would be affected by the stoppage of Las Bambas.