Peru gives Southern Copper’s $1.4bn Tia Maria copper mine final approval

US miner Southern Copper (NYSE, LON: SCCO) announced it will be able to restart work at its $1.4 billion Tía María copper project near Arequipa, Peru, which has been suspended since 2011 due to opposition from nearby communities concerned about the mine’s use of water.

On grating the final approval, the country’s Mines and Energy Ministry said, according to El Economista (in Spanish), that the resubmitted environmental impact study for the mine, one of the biggest projects planned in Peru, complied with all the demands brought forward by locals and environmentalists.

Southern Copper, one of the world’s biggest producers of copper, had previously said that, if construction were to start in the second half of the year, the Tia Maria mine could begin production in two years, with an average output of 120,000 tons of copper a year during its 20 years of mine life.

Peru’s government forecasts the country will produce 2.8 million tons of copper a year by 2016, about double its current production as a number of new projects come on stream.

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