Some of the world’s biggest miners say they like what they’re hearing from Peru’s new leftist government of late, further easing fears that drastic policy changes could stall future output in the No. 2 copper nation.
Freeport-McMoRan boss Richard Adkerson said at an industry event last week he was left “encouraged” from a recent meeting with President Pedro Castillo, a former rural union activist from a Marxist party. At the same conference two days earlier, BHP Group’s president for minerals in the Americas, Ragnar Udd, complimented the government’s “strategic” approach.
The praise marks a sharp turnaround from the investor anxiety that surrounded elections in April, when Castillo vowed to nationalise assets, block projects and take a bigger share of the mineral windfall to fight poverty.
The polarising process spurred concern that a far more onerous operating environment would derail investments needed to help fill a looming copper supply gap as the world tries to wean itself off fossil fuels.
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