The Tia Maria mine is a large

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

deposit located in the south of

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

in the province of Islay,

Arequipa Region Arequipa () is a department and region in southwestern Peru. It is the sixth largest department in Peru, after Puno, Cuzco, Madre de Dios, Ucayali, and Loreto, its sixth most populous department, and its eleventh least densely populated dep ...

. The deposit contains an estimated total reserves 711 million tonnes of ore graded at 0.36% copper. The project is operated by

Southern Peru Copper Corporation Southern Copper Corporation is a mining company that was founded in 1952. The current incarnation of Southern Copper can be traced to the 2005 acquisition of Southern Peru Copper Corporation by the Mexican copper producer Minera México. 88.9 p ...

. In 2011, there were protests against the project which led to the deaths of three people. Concerns about the impact on agriculture led to the project's being put on hold. A revised

Environmental Impact Assessment Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is the assessment of the environmental impact, environmental consequences of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action. In this context, the te ...

by Geoservice Ingeniería for Southern Copper Corporation was approved in August 2014. The construction permit is still pending. A new round of protests began in March 2015, including a march of eight hundred people. Many people were injured, and, by May, three more people have died from protesting.

References

{{coord, 17.0131, S, 71.7713, W, source:wikidata, display=title Mines in the Department of Arequipa Copper mines in Peru Copper ore deposits Open-pit mines Mining projects in Peru Surface mines in Peru

See also

References