The National Society of Mining, Oil, and Energy (SNMPE) on Tuesday referred to the initiatives highlighted by Energy and Mines Minister Susana Vilca at
PDAC 2020 Mining Convention in Toronto (Canada), describing them as successful, since they will invigorate mining exploration investment in Peru.
SNMPE CEO Pablo de la Flor noted that the initiatives announced by the Energy and Mines Ministry (Minem) head will contribute to reducing the bureaucratic barriers that have made Peru less competitive to attract new capitals, with the aim of
encouraging mining exploration.
"The excessive red tape and permit requirements constitute serious barriers to investments enabling the search for new deposits within the national territory, which is why the Government's efforts in the development of modern social and
environmentally responsible mining are so important," he underlined.
In this sense, De la Flor said that the proposed changes in the Environmental Protection and Management Regulations for activities of exploitation, transport, mining storage and benefit, as well as in the Environmental Management and Protection Regulations, point to optimize the administrative procedures and speed up the flow of investments.
He made it clear that this is not about loosening the requirements or demands, but eliminating or simplifying the processes that —instead of generating value— reduce it. This results in major delays in investment decision making.
The SNMPE head pointed out that in order to make Peru's mining exploration investment portfolio —worth over US$496 million— more viable, the State has to be more proactive in eliminating red tape and overregulation, which hamper investments.
Initiatives to speed up investments
In this regard, she referred to the changes in the Environmental Protection and Management Regulations for activities of exploitation, transport, mining storage, benefit, and general labor, which optimize administrative procedures, increasing the predictability for investors when processing permissions required for the development of the activity.
Similarly, with the aim of reducing bureaucratic barriers and administrative costs, Minem has made changes in the Environmental Management and Protection Regulations, which have been pre-published through a ministerial resolution.
(END) CAN/RMB/MVB
Published: 3/3/2020