Corani's communities advocate for lithium and silver projctshttps://elcomercio.pe/economia/dia-1/corani-puno-comuneros-de-corani-abogan-por-proyectos-de-plata-y-litio-ante-el-presidente-pedro-castillo-noticia/?ref=ecr Puno: Comuneros of Corani advocate for silver and lithium projects before President Pedro Castillo
Residents of the Puno district met with the president at the Government Palace to ask him to promote the development of mining. President promised that he will guarantee private investment.
While mining conflicts are raging in various areas of Peru, in Corani (Puno) they request the development of mining. In the photo, community members of the area with President Pedro Castillo.
Mining is a time bomb for the government in mines such as Las Bambas and Antapaccay, where the population is dissatisfied with mining operations on a recurring basis.
For this reason, the opposite case presented by the community members of the Puno district of Corani has been a balm for the Executive because those community members themselves approached the Government Palace last Friday to complain, not about mining in the area, but about the non-existence of it, when "there is a lot of potential" for its development.
“We at Corani are blessed because we have silver, lithium, uranium and gold. We are quite an interesting place for mining. That is why we approached President Castillo to tell him that he has all the authorization to develop these investments”, says Edmundo Caceres Guerra, mayor of Corani (Carabaya).
What projects is it? Cceres explains that his district is home to the two most interesting projects in Puno: the Corani silver project, developed by Bear Creek (US$ 579 million), and the Macusani uranium-lithium project, in charge of Macusani Yellowcake (US$ 887 million).
The community members of Corani spoke to President Castillo about both in a meeting they held last Friday.
According to Caceres, the main concern of the communities was that the Government nationalize both projects, which "would not allow their development".
“That is why we traveled to Loma and asked President Castillo: What do you think of private investment, because we have silver and lithium projects? And he answered us that he would guarantee private investment because it is the only way to contribute to development and that he would take Corani as a model”, says the official.
Corani is the largest silver project in the country. According to the mayor of that district, the investment has an "incredible backing" from the population.
Why Corani? Caceres points out that this is due to the unanimous support that the communities - about 3,000 inhabitants - provide to this project, which guarantees its execution by Bear Creek.
"That means there is no fear that the company invests and proceeds to build the mine", he adds.
Corani is, in fact, one of the five or six projects called to begin construction in 2021 or 2022, depending solely on the financing that the company can obtain in the markets, since it has all its permits in order.
Regarding the Macusani project, the President said that the investment would go as long as his operator, Macusani Yellowcake, commits to industrialize lithium in the Corani district. The project is still in the exploration stage.