Peru's mines to be fully operational by end of July after nation ends coronavirus lockdown

Peru's miners are on track to resume operating at 100% capacity by the end of July after the government ended a nationwide coronavirus lockdown last week, Energy & Mines Minister Susana Vilca said.

Investment projects such as Anglo American's $5 billion Quellaveco, Minsur's $1.6 billion Mina Justa and Chinalco's $1.5 billion Toromocho expansion have also been delayed by "several months" after much of the mining industry was halted by the lockdown in mid-March, said Vilca, who was appointed in February.

At least 1,000 mineworkers tested positive for the novel coronavirus at operations including Antamina, Chinalco's Toromocho, Nexa Resources, and Minsur.

"We can see by the power demand that operations are gradually returning to normal, [al]though there's always a certain number of infected workers as we don't know how the virus will behave," Vilca told foreign reporters in an online conference. "We're confident that production will be back at 100% by the end of July, and we'll see a major recovery by December."

Companies including Freeport-McMoRan, China Minmetals, Antamina, Newmont, Hudbay Minerals, Pan American Silver, Sierra Metals, Nexa Resources, Hochschild Mining, Minsur, and Buenaventura have all restarted operations after implementing safety protocols.

Peru, the world's second-largest copper, zinc and silver miner, produced 768,463 mt of copper (down 22.6%), 398,771 mt of zinc (down 29%), 83,723 mt of lead (down 33%), 6,196 mt of tin (down 26.4%), 36,155 kg of gold (down 32.8%) and 1.05 million kg of silver (down 31.6%) through May, according to the ministry.

Peru, the hardest-hit country in the region after Brazil, has reported 312,911 coronavirus cases and 11,133 deaths from coronavirus to date.