At Rumbo a PERUMIN Cajamarca, Marco La Torre, President of the Cajamarca Chamber of Commerce and Production, pointed out that Cajamarca may become one of the greatest suppliers of copper, an essential mineral that industrialized countries will need to drive the wind and solar energies and electric vehicles, aiming at having a cleaner and more sustainable world.

He sustained that this region has a copper belt that crosses one mountain range and different provinces, hosting important mining deposits, such as Conga, Michiquillay, Galeno and Tantahuatay and that their development must be decided in a broad and open deliberation with the inhabitants and authorities of Cajamarca.

“A democratic and transparent debate should come from us, the people from Cajamarca, with the participation of the central government and other sublevels, to help us transform those agreements into laws. The future of our region is up to us and for that, we need to give social stability to the investors”, he said.

Consensus about the water and self-consumption

In turn, Juan Carlos Mondragón, Development Manager of the Regional Government of Cajamarca, indicated that the generation of consensus at the three levels of Government and the mining sector is fundamental in order to share one same vision of development for the region of Cajamarca.

In this regard, he proposed as a common factor to reach consensus between the miners and the region, to commit to the management of water resources with productive purposes, where there are currently 2 million m3 of water, and to commit to the regional market economy, that is, to consume what the region produces.

 It is necessary to eradicate corrupt officials

Meanwhile, Manuel Chung, General Manager of Lumina Copper, stated that the company always approached the different governments of Cajamarca; however, the only thing they asked for was funding for studies on projects that never materialized.

“We always keep in mind the regional development of Cajamarca, but unfortunately, we come across certain officials who have some ethics problems. This must be eradicated and improved with an administration that is honest and efficient with the public resources”, he emphasized.

 Synergies between mining and the universities are urgent

 Lastly, Bernardo Escalante, Rector of the National University of Cajamarca, commented that mining does not only generate an economic impact on the region, but also an environmental one. Thus, he proposed that the mining sector uses biotechnology and microorganisms to remediate environmental liabilities in Cajamarca, where there are currently more than 1,000.

“It is urgent to develop a close collaboration between mining companies and universities, to construct alternatives towards finding solutions for the challenges of the mining sector in matters of productivity, sustainability and efficiency”, he said.