Sebastián Benavides, president of the International Congress of Prospectors and Explorers (proEXPLO 2023), said in an interview for the television program Tierra Adentro that permitting is one of the main obstacles for the development of mining exploration in Peru and that it makes us lose competitiveness compared to countries such as Chile, Canada and Australia.

"In Peru it takes you a year and a half to get your early exploration permit, while in Canada it can take you a few weeks and in Chile a few months, that's something that makes you less competitive. A company that wants to come to invest can explore 3 or 4 projects in Canada in the time it takes to explore one project in Peru," he said.

He further explained that improving the conditions for attracting investment in mining exploration is important to ensure the continuity of the growth that mining has experienced in recent years. In addition, it is a diversified investment, targeting all of Peru and providing development opportunities in different geographic and geological environments.

"The issue of permitting is important. Not to make the process less rigorous, but with the rigorousness that we have, to seek bureaucratic efficiencies in order to speed it up and do it at scale", emphasized Benavides.

He also indicated that our country is in a position to recover the momentum for mining exploration. Although the investment figure for 2021 (US$ 336 million) increased in 2022 (US$ 417 million), growth has not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

It is worth mentioning that in 2021 the figure amounted to US$493 million and has been decreasing since then for various reasons, including bureaucratic procedures and permitting.

"We have had issues that have made us less competitive globally, even in Latin America, where in 2017 we were the main destination for mining exploration investment and today we are after Chile and Mexico, in third place," Benavides specified.

Therefore, it is time for the country to boost its investment attractiveness for mining exploration, a complicated industry, as one out of every 100 projects drilled will one day become a mine.

proEXPLO 2023

On the other hand, the president of proEXPLO 2023 invited the public to participate in the congress to be held from May 8 to 10 at the Lima Convention Center, where all the issues related to mining exploration, as well as the latest technological advances, will be discussed in depth.

"Within the program, we will have 9 keynote lectures with globally referenced exhibitors and 2 round tables that focus on certain cross-cutting themes. The first one is Diversity and Inclusion, how from exploration we can start to change the trends in the sector; also how to empower academia from the industry; and ESG issues in exploration projects," he said.

proEXPLO 2023: Discovering the mining of the future