Peruvian Congress dismisses Minister of Energy and Mines amid mining protests

The Congress of Peru voted on Tuesday in favor of the dismissal of the Minister of Energy and Mines, Rómulo Mucho, amid protests by small miners who demand the extension for two more years of a registry that allows them to operate temporarily, but that according to the government, its misuse has expanded illegal mining.

Now President Dina Boluarte, within a maximum period of 72 hours, must accept the decision and appoint a new Minister of Energy and Mines, an important portfolio in the world’s third largest producer of copper and key to the local economy.

According to the Congressional panel, some 78 legislators – from the left and right – voted for Mucho’s dismissal, four against and 13 representatives abstained from voting.

For several days, hundreds of artisanal and informal miners have been engaged in a series of protests, blocking roads and demonstrating in Lima and other cities, especially in the south of the country.

Low-scale miners have rejected a government bill sent to Congress that gives them a limit of six months to regularize their activities, a period that will apply from December 31 when the validity of the current Comprehensive Registry of Mining Formalization (REINFO) will end. ).

The REINFO, extended several times, was born at the beginning of the last decade to allow the formalization of artisanal miners, but many took advantage of the temporary permit to operate in prohibited areas or on the property of third parties, without meeting environmental and labor requirements.

The government has about 85,000 records of artisanal miners, most of them from poor areas in the interior of the country, but only 20% of these miners have been able to formalize their jobs since 2012 when the program was created. Peru is the eighth global gold producer according to data from the local private sector.

The rest operate with suspended permits in areas that belong to formal companies, or illegally amid reports of confrontations and attacks on established mines that have left at least thirty dead in recent years.

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