por admin » Mié Nov 30, 2011 8:17 am
Newmont es la cuarta compania en posponer proyectos de inversion en Peru.
Newmont Gold Project Halt Undermines Peru Investment
By Alex Emery - Nov 30, 2011 10:00 AM ET ...(Corrects to say project suspended in first paragraph.)
Newmont Mining Corp., which suspended a $4.8 billion gold project in Peru following violent anti-mining protests, is the fourth company to postpone investment in the Andean nation this year amid falling output.
The halt at Minas Conga, the nation’s biggest project, was “required by the government of Peru and for the sake of reestablishing tranquility and social peace,” Denver-based Newmont said in an e-mailed statement. Newmont, the largest U.S. gold producer, said it will seek talks with the government and communities opposing the mine.
Environmental protests by farmers fearing mining will pollute water sources have halted projects by companies including Southern Copper Corp. (SCCO), Anglo American Plc (AAL) and Bear Creek Mining Corp. (BCM) Failure by President Ollanta Humala to quell protests may make it harder to finance $50 billion in mining investment projects over the next decade, according to analysts including Canaccord Genuity’s Luis Zapata.
If the government “were to let these protests expand, they are going to risk Peruvian projects being given higher country risk discount and becoming less attractive to international investors,” Zapata said in e-mailed comments.
Farmers concerned that Minas Conga may dry up water resources blocked roads and destroyed Newmont’s installations during a six-day protest. Clashes with police left at least 17 wounded and two arrested yesterday in the northern Andean region of Cajamarca, 560 kilometers (350 miles) northwest of the capital Lima, according to Lima-based Radioprogramas.
‘Taken Hostage’
The head of Cajamarca’s regional government, Gregorio Santos, rejected further talks yesterday and called on the government to scrap the project.
Minas Conga seeks to produce 680,000 ounces of gold and 235 million pounds of copper annually. Peru is the world’s third- largest copper miner and the sixth-largest gold producer.
Peru’s gold output dropped 21 percent to 163 metric tons last year from 207 tons in 2005 because of a lack of new mines, according to the National Society of Mining, Petroleum & Energy, an industry group.
“We can’t allow Peruvians to be taken hostage by groups that just preach violence,” the group’s president Pedro Martinez told reporters in Lima yesterday. “Without peace there will be no development.”
Lost Business
The protests, which forced airlines to cancel flights to Cajamarca’s airport, are causing $10 million a day in lost business in the dairy and the tourism industries, according to the Lima Chamber of Commerce. Cajamarca is a dairy, livestock and farming region.
Humala was elected in June on pledges to raise taxes and exert greater control over the mining industry, which accounts for 60 percent of the country’s export revenue and half its tax income, to finance social spending programs for the country’s 8 million people living in extreme poverty.
Newmont rose 0.1 percent to $65.29 yesterday in New York.
Gold futures for February delivery advanced 0.3 percent to $1,718.90 an ounce yesterday on the Comex in New York.