With Conga shelved, perhaps the focus will now be on resolving Santa Ana.

Newmont mine 'on back burner'-Peru cabinet chief

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/23/peru-mining-newmont-idINL2E8JN3JD20120823

Aug 23 (Reuters) - Newmont Mining Corp's $5 billion Conga gold project is "on the back burner," Peru's government said on Thursday - a sign that it will stop trying to overcome local opposition that has resulted in violence and two cabinet shuffles.

Prime Minister Juan Jimenez made the comments after a poll by survey firm Ipsos showed 78 percent of people in the northern Peruvian region of Cajamarca opposed the planned mine.

The high-profile conflict has dominated President Ollanta Humala's first year in office, resulting in five deaths in Cajamarca and instability in his cabinet.

Humala has tried to show investors that he is committed to projects in Peru's $50 billion pipeline of planned mines, but critics say left-wing political leaders in Cajamarca have outmaneuvered him.

Now the situation has entered "a new phase," Jimenez told reporters. "We need to build a positive agenda that means people can work normally and stop demonstrations."

Shops in Cajamarca have often been shuttered since protests against the project gained force in November.

Locals fear the project, essentially an expansion of the Yanacocha mine in Cajamarca, will cause contamination and ruin local water sources essential to their agricultural livelihoods.

Newmont says reservoirs it would build will provide year-round water supplies in areas that currently suffer during the dry season.

The Conga mine would be one of the biggest investments in Peru's history. Mining makes up 60 percent of the nation's export earnings and has traditionally powered its economy, although towns near mines often are plagued by poverty.

The project has become a lightning rod for debates about whether mining can benefit local communities without damaging the environment, and whether national economic interests should trump local opposition to extractive activities.

"It's dead," Gregorio Santos, the left-wing Cajamarca president who has led rallies against the mine, said via Twitter on Wednesday after the poll results.

Other polls have shown nationwide support for Conga. A separate Ipsos poll this month found that nationally, 45 percent of Peruvians support it, while 40 percent oppose it.

Newmont, whose Chief Executive Officer Richard O'Brien was in Peru last week, said in July that Conga "will occur only with local and national support ... Conga is still in our plans but moving ahead on a very measured basis."

Mining analysts have said the company might wait to build the mine until after Santos leaves office in 2014. He is widely expected to be eying a bid for president in 2016, when Humala cannot run for a second-straight term.

Newmont holds 51.35 percent of Conga, and Peru's Buenaventura owns 43.65 percent. Five percent is held by International Finance Corp.

Newmont and Buenaventura operate Yanacocha, which is one of the largest gold producers in Latin America. It produced 1.5 million ounces of gold in 2010.

Conga would produce between 580,000 and 680,000 ounces of gold annually in its first five years of operation and run for about 19 years.

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http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-05-01/bear-creek-expects-peru-project-rights-resolution-by-year-end

Bear Creek Expects Peru Project Rights Resolution by Year-End

May 1, 2012 - Bear Creek Mining Corp. (BCM) expects to resolve a dispute with Peru by the end of this year, possibly by sharing profits with the local community, after the government withdrew a concession to develop the Santa Ana silver deposit.

Bear Creek may agree to give local communities 2 percent to 3 percent of net profit from the deposit as part of a deal to restore its rights to build and operate the mine, Chief Executive Officer Andrew Swarthout said in an interview in Toronto today.

“There’s a strong willingness to resolve this problem,”he told analysts and investors at a presentation earlier today.“We’ve had some very constructive discussions.”

Peru’s government withdrew Vancouver-based Bear Creek’s concession to develop the Santa Ana project as it sought to end a month of protests seeking a ban on mining and energy investment in the southern Andean region of Puno.

Newmont Mining, the largest U.S. gold producer, suspended construction of its $4.8 billion Minas Conga project in Peru in November after weeks of clashes between police and opponents of the mine. Newmont said last week it’s evaluating the recommendations of a government report that said the project needs “substantive improvements.”

Swarthout said the uncertainty over Minas Conga probably needs to be resolved before Bear Creek sees progress on an agreement for recovering the Santa Ana rights.

Bear Creek declined 3 percent to C$3.25 at the close in Toronto. The shares have fallen 60 percent in the past 12 months while silver prices have dropped 36 percent.

Bear Creek Expects Peru Project Rights Resolution by Year-End