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FILE IMAGE. People gather as community leaders reject a government proposal to prevent future blockades affecting the Las Bambas mine, in Sayhua, Peru
LIMA, March 17 (Archyde.com) – A Peruvian community agreed on Thursday to lift the road blockade affecting China’s MMG Ltd’s Las Bambas copper mine since March 1, the government said, allowing one of the The world’s largest producers of the metal ship the ore to customers around the world.
Las Bambas produces 2% of the world’s supply of copper, while Peru is the second largest producer of the metal.
The government said in a statement that the community of Urinsaya, located some 250 kilometers from the Las Bambas mine, had agreed to lift the blockade after three days of meetings.
Las Bambas uses a dirt road of more than 400 kilometers to transport its metal to a seaport by truck, passing through dozens of impoverished communities in the Peruvian Andes.
Communities located in an Andean zone have often protested against the copper miner, blocking the road, to accuse the company of not improving their quality of life while the trucks contaminate their crops.
(Report by Marcelo Rochabrun)