Peru’s emergency mining ban to cost $200 million in lost gold output

Peruvian gold output is expected to be significantly dented in the coming month due to a mining ban in a northern region of the country that’s seen an up-tick in criminal activity culminating in the murder of 13 mine workers.

The central bank estimates that companies will lose about 60,000 ounces of production in the next 30 days, its chief economist Adrian Armas told reporters Friday. That’s worth about $200 million at current prices and represents about 20% of the country’s total output in the month of February, the most recent production data available.

The most impacted company will be Cia Minera Poderosa, which operates a major gold mine in an area that’s become a hotbed of violence. Poderosa produced about 24,000 ounces of gold in February. About 39 workers linked to Poderosa have been killed in recent years in disputes over who can extra gold within the company’s mining concessions, prompting the government to declare repeated states of emergency.

The total mining ban was published Friday after the government went back and forth on whether formal mining operations should be suspended too.

Peru’s mining industry association SNMPE has criticized the government’s decision to ban all mining activities, saying only illegal operations should have been shut down. The decision “reflects the government’s lack of understanding of the complexities of developing mining activities and the environmental, operational and social risks involved in halting operations for 30 days,” the industry group said.

(By Marcelo Rochabrun and James Attwood)