During his participation in proEXPLO 2023, José Vizquerra, president and CEO of O3 Mining, warned that Peru is facing a context of reduced gold reserves and production, which should be reversed to take advantage of the high price of the metal, which will remain above US$ 2,000 at least until next year and will average US$ 1,700 in the long term.

"If we focus on reserves, Peru would have reserves for only 29 years. In other words, we're wrong if we think we're going to be rich and produce gold forever.

Time flies. More than 30 years ago, specifically in 1992, we had the most important discovery in the world, Yanacocha, and it is no longer what it was before, it no longer produces 3 million ounces," he said during a technical talk.

The executive added that a similar situation is being experienced worldwide, where gold resources have declined to 1,672,000 ounces, making it necessary to accelerate the development of gold mining projects until they become productive units to meet current and future demand.

"We can see that in 2016 there were greater gold resources compared to what we have in 2022, but these resources were not found that same year, but possibly found six or ten years earlier," he explained.

For José Vizquerra, the future of the gold industry in Peru towards 2030 "is terrible", because we are currently facing great difficulties in terms of administrative procedures for the approval of exploration and drilling permits in a shorter period of time.

"We have to do a huge effort to work together with the industry to streamline bureaucratic processes, and perhaps streamline bureaucratic processes in general, as they may be pushing us to informality because they're not delivering," he argued.

Likewise, the also president of Silver Mountain Resources argued that interest rates have increased gradually and steadily since 2004, and it was not until they began to decline in 2016 that the gold price was able to recover.

In addition to the above, he argued that gold would also benefit from the onset of a global economic recession that could come after 2023, since the metal would become a safe-haven asset to avoid the crisis and would further increase its price.

"The most important banks worldwide are extremely optimistic about the gold price. They estimate an average gold price of $1700 in the long term. But certainly, if I were to make my own assessment, I think we're going to continue to see gold above $2,000 for the next year or so," he predicted.

Finally, José Vizquerra reflected that Peru has the obligation to produce gold in an adequate and orderly manner in order to attract more young people who are committed to mining that is socially and environmentally responsible, that creates jobs and is a lever for poverty reduction.

"The only way to attract investment is to provide the necessary conditions for this money to enter the country so that we can generate the greatest number of jobs for the greatest number of people. We are not only competing for money and natural resources, we are also competing for human talent," he concluded.

proEXPLO 2023: Discovering the mining of the future