LatinNews Daily - 26 May 2022

* The Chinese mining company MMG has issued a statement dismissing the “inordinate” demands of protesters opposing the Las Bambas copper mine in Peru’s Apurímac region. The statement followed a meeting between representatives of local communities and the firm on 25 May aimed at ending protests which have halted operations at Las Bambas for over a month. According to a communique reported by local media, MMG said that the failure to make progress in talks was down to demands that “include schemes not covered by the current legal order” such as a “50% share of the company’s profits”. They also claimed that the protesting groups were making “new demands that had not been recorded in previous discussions”. According to Observatorio de Conflictos Mineros, a Peruvian NGO which reports on mining conflicts, the communities have three major demands: the incorporation of an employment quota in mining operations, revision of contracts to determine whether salaries are reasonable, and the return of land already mined to the local communities. The meeting with MMG follows a week of sustained negotiation efforts, in which community leaders have met on separate occasions with President Pedro Castillo, Prime Minister Aníbal Torres, and other senior government officials. However, these negotiations have failed to produce an agreement to end the crisis.

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