Peru: Journalistic analysis explains the origins and update on the extended conflict in the mining corridor; cites Chinese mining company Las Bambas

• Las Bambas is a mining project of MMG (Mines and Metals Group), part of China Minmetals
• This conflict refers to mining concessions in farming lands in 2016 to build roads for the service of three mining transnational companies: MMG (China), Hudbay Minerals (Canada) and Glencore (Switzerland)

"Land conflict spreads in the mining corridor" - 22 September 2021.

The communities are demanding, among other issues, payment for their lands that were incorporated in 2016 into the national road used by MMG Las Bambas, Hudbay and Glencore to transport ore. In total there are 20 Quechua communities that have joined these demands...Over the last 15 years, the road that runs through the main mining operations in southern Peru has been the scene of multiple conflicts between Quechua communities, the government, and companies. President Pedro Castillo obtained a high percentage of votes in this area, especially in Cusco and Apurimac. Expectations of a better response to their demands grew when Guido Bellido Ugarte, a native of Chumbivilcas, one of the provinces where one of the mining conflicts has been going on for months, was appointed head of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (PCM)... Two months have passed since 10 communities blocked the road - known as the mining corridor - through which the ore is transported. Bellido Ugarte has promised solutions and has travelled six times to the area, but the government has still not managed to resolve the various conflicts reported in both regions...The southern mining corridor passes through 37 Quechua peasant communities: 12 of them located in the province of Cotabambas (Apurímac), 24 in Chumbivilcas and Espinar (Cusco) and one in Caylloma (Arequipa). In addition to complaints of contamination, twenty of these communities have been demanding since 2016 that the recategorisation of six sections of the road that used to be communal and departmental roads, but which became national roads at the request of regional governments and were incorporated into the mining corridor, be annulled...Of the twenty affected communities identified by PublicEye, 12 are from Chumbivilcas: Huinininquiri, Idiopa Ñaupa Japo Urinsaya, Tincurca Huaylla, Lacca Lacca Yanque, Parccobamba, Cancahuani, Cruzpampa, Huascabamba, Huaylla Huaylla, Hatun Ccollana, Sayhua and Tuntuma. Currently, except for the last two, the other 10 are on indefinite strike and have blocked the corridor in their respective communities...[See previous responses from Hudbay Minerals; MMG declined to respond as it is a court case and Glencore on its Antamina mine].