on Wednesday argued that Peru has the capacity to surpass Chile in copper production; thus, it could rank first worldwide.
To achieve this goal, the government official specified that an investment worth US$40 billion is required to get closer to current Chilean production values.
"We need US$40 billion to invest; with that amount (…) we could even surpass it because our projects are greenfield, new projects. In Chile, there is more talk about capacity expansions," Mucho said in remarks to Red de Comunicación Regional (RCR).
According to data from Statista, Chile's copper production is around 5 billion metric tons. It is followed by Congo, with close to 2.5 billion and then Peru with similar value.
The Cabinet member affirmed that Peru can regain second place in production given that it has greater copper reserves than Congo. According to Minem's head, these amount to 110 million tons, below the almost 200 million in Chile.
Furthermore, the minister mentioned that tax revenue from red metal exports will lead to increasing the country's development given the various benefits it brings to the Peruvian economy.
"Copper revenues could finance Peru's development because 72% of the entire mining projects portfolio is copper," Mucho indicated.
Worldwide, there are 2.5 billion tons of copper to be exploited and 3.5 billion to be discovered, he specified.