Taking into account the circumstances and the interest in Peru as a world destination for mining investments, the Ministry of Energy and Mines (Minem) presented the new portfolio of exploration projects for this year, which totals US$ 506 million distributed in 60 initiatives.

The General Director of Mining Promotion and Sustainability at the Minem, Luis Ducassi, detailed that regarding the distribution of these exploration initiatives in the regions, the South Macroregion covers most of the projected investments.

"These are estimated at US$ 186 million and are mostly copper investments. The region with the largest number of exploration investment projects is Arequipa," said the director of Minem.

He added that in second place there is a tie between the Northern and Central macroregions, with projects for an estimated US$ 159 million in exploration investments each.

Also, he pointed out that regions such as La Libertad are dominated by gold projects, while Pasco is known for having silver projects.

On the other hand, Luis Ducassi revealed that there are 60 exploration projects that were incorporated with a special methodology.

"These are divided into seven projects that are in the process of preparing their Environmental Management Instruments, whose investments in exploration reach a total of US$ 160 million. There are another 21 projects whose Environmental Management Instruments, have already been approved and are awaiting authorization to initiate activities. Investments in the latter amount to US$ 136 million," he said.

The general director of mining promotion and sustainability of Minem informed that the third category are projects that already have their Environmental Management Instruments approved and the authorization to start exploratory activities by the General Directorate of Mining (DGM).

"In this case, we are talking about 32 projects for a total of US$ 210 million," said the Director from Minem.