Tuesday, March 16th 2010 | 17:38 hrs
The informal mining production in Peru generates around 600 million dollars in illegal annual sales, said Vice Minister of Mines, Fernando Gala.
This activity causes loss to the country because it provides no fee or mining royalties to benefit the Peruvians, besides damaging the environment, it is practiced without complying the environmental standards, according to the MEM.
Gala said that the formalization of this field should be worked not only by the Ministry of Energy and Mines, but from different sectors and regional governments, Ministry of Environment, Transport and Communications, Health, National Police of Peru and in some cases, private sectors.
He explained that currently, the MEM has a fund of four million dollars that is run through a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) program , aimed to support the regional initiative from the governments to its formalisation.
Soldevilla Gala highlighted some success stories in the process of formalizing artisanal mining companies that fit well as national environmental standards, they do internationally, together with their counterparts from Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia, supported by the Foundation Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM).
“If all artisanal mining companies follow these examples, we wouldn not have problems with illegal mining in Peru”, he said after adding that in recent years the international gold price has increased as well as the illegal mining activity.