Perus Congress has removed Romulo Mucho from his energy-mines minister position‚ while hundreds of small-scale miners set-up camps near the parliament building (showing their non-stop protest against mining rules)
The miners who dont have proper permits are asking for a two-year extension of REINFO program; which lets them work short-term. However government says this set-up made non-legal mining grow bigger
The law-makers decided that Mucho showed poor work on fixing the problem: now President Dina Boluarte needs to pick new minister in 72 hrs for this key job in copper-rich country
- Miners sleep in tents near Congress
- South region has road-blocks
- Program ends dec-31-2024
- Ministers office wanted 6-month fix
The ten-year-old REINFO program aimed to make small mining legal but govt says miners often break rules: mining where its not allowed or on other peoples land. Non-legal mining brings huge money - about $1.1B in first part of 2024; more profit than drug sales
Small-scale miners make 40% of Perus gold; with country making 99.7M grams last year - up from year before. The miners say six months isnt enough to make their work follow rules‚ while blocking streets in capital