ProActivo

 

After leaving the portfolio of mining projects of ProInversión, Colca and Jalaoca will now be auctioned by INGEMMET, which has already confirmed the call for next May.

The Geological Mining and Metallurgical Institute (INGEMMET in spanish) will put the auction in may of this year the Areas of Non-Admission of Mining Petitions (ANAP) Colca and Jalaoca -located in Apurímac- which were left aside by ProInversión and confirmed its cancellation in February of this year.

INGEMMET’s mining concessions director, María Angélica Remuzgo, confirmed to ProActivo that the mining claims of both projects that had already been sent to ProInversión and whose call for public tender was canceled this year, will be put to auction by the INGEMMET, ” within the framework of the General Mining Law “.

Asked about the reasons for the return of the mentioned mining prospects, which were already in the hands of ProInversión, he replied: “it was a question of deadlines that we did not reach.”

The mining prospects Colca and Jalaoca were going to be the first ANAP awarded in the international call and that were destined to start the promotion path for more projects of their type, at that level.

Ver también:  PROINVERSIÓN promueve portafolio APP en saneamiento por más US$ 2,200 millones

Advances and setbacks

Both were launched for the International Public Competition call in March 2018, within the framework of the PDAC International Mining Convention (Toronto, Canada). The executive director of ProInversión, Alberto Ñecco, presented them as part of his presentation at the “Peru Day” of PDAC 2018. In his speech, he announced the interest of various international investors for “the Colca and Jalaoca projects”.

It should be noted that the geophysical prospecting studies of the Colca project (Cotabambambas, Apurímac) showed the presence of copper and gold porphyry, which suggest good development possibilities for its exploration and the discovery of medium to large size deposits, similar to the existing in nearby areas, such as Las Bambas.

In the month of may 2018, ProInversión announced that it was expected to award the good for Jalaoca for July and Colca for september of that same year. Until then, the interest of 15 investors in both prospects was reported.

In spite of this official announcement, on september 25, ProInversión announced the suspension of the international award of Colca and extended the bidding timetable for Jalaoca. In the first case, he argued the need to “expand the information to the surrounding communities”. While respecting Jalaoca stressed that it would promote greater socialization with the authorities that were elected after the elections in october 2018.

Ver también:  PROINVERSIÓN adjudicó 16 proyectos por más de US$ 6,100 millones en últimos 15 meses

However, on february 20, 2019, on the eve of the realization of the PDAC 2019, the director of Investor Services of ProInversión, César Peñaranda Luna, announced the withdrawal of both projects that had been put to tender for their concession, although he didn´t explain the reasons why they would not continue with both state initiatives.

In fact, ProInversión had publicly expressed its interest in promoting the country’s mining exploration through the promotion of the ANAP. So far there has been no official pronouncement on why the decision was made. Only it is known by unofficial sources that they would have had problems with the communities at the time of the attempt of their socialization, besides scarce infrastructure.

The Future

Now, both projects pass from the condition of “International Public Competition”, regulated by ProInversión, which ensured a process of selection of bidders, to a public auction made by INGEMMET.

The director of said organization remarked that the geological information about Colca and Jalaoca is public and open and is available to any interested party through the GEOCATMIN platform of INGEMMET.

Ver también:  Ingemmet e Inacal definen temáticas para reforzar trabajo conjunto

Miguel Cardozo, businessman and mining geologist, said that “the issue of ANAP is not appropriate, it does not work and it should not be.”

Extra information:

  • Colca and Jalaoca were reserved by the Peruvian State as Area of Non-Admission of Petitions (ANAP), with advanced geophysical studies.
  • INGEMMET is in charge of the identification and delimitation of the ANAPs for approval, as well as their study of mining potential and prospection before being approved by the MEM (Ministry of Energy and Mining) and sent to ProInversión for promotion.
  • The Colca mining project is located in the north of the Apurímac region (province of Cotabambas, districts of Cotabambas and Tambobamba, in the communities of Colca, Pamparki, Paruro, Huañec and Huamancharpa). It has an area of 14 thousand hectares and according to prospecting studies the presence of copper and gold porphyry is estimated.
  • The Jalaoca mining prospect is located in the Apurímac region (provinces of Aymaraes and Antabamba, 30 km south of Chalhuanca, with an extension of 6,400 hectares and has a presence of gold, copper and molybdenum.
  • Both are located in territories considered as ANAP since March 2013.