Peru, the largest copper producer after Chile, rebounded from a hard landing in the middle of the year to post double-digit output growth.
The next stage of recovery is proving to be slowing.
Victor Gobitz, President of the Peruvian Association of Mining Engineers, said mines had invested in social distancesto ensure worker safety and were now focusing on maintaining profit margins rather than merely increasing production.
"It's going to be a while before we get back to where we were last year," Gobitz said in a telephone interview on Tuesday, adding that some businesses won't start until next year. "The priority here is not to produce more products, but to build financial strength."
While production in neighbouring Chile has remained fairly stable during the outbreak, most of Peru's mining industry was shut down for two months, leaving Chinese smelters unable to obtain concentrate and driving up treatment costs before bouncing back sharply in June and July.
Gobitz, who also heads One of Peru's largest copper mines, Antamina, said gains had been more muted since then and output growth would continue to slow.
Still, the industry has managed to keep coVID-19 infection rates to a minimum, and the mining industry has not been affected in any way by the country's political turmoil, he said.
Gobitz says some companies are back to 90% headcount after layoffs earlier this year.
In a frenzied week in Peruvian politics, three different presidents have emerged.
While this has had an indirect impact on the mining industry through market reactions, he said, the industry has been producing and transporting minerals without disruption from protests concentrated in urban areas.
Given Peru's wealth of minerals, energy, modern regulation and healthy project pipelines supporting the mining industry, he says, the industry is well placed to overcome some of the political noise caused by institutional immaturity.
PUDA copper packing machine:
PUDA Design proposal for solving packing difficulties of copper concentrate powder
• Side wall angle of silo is more than 60 degrees to change contacting angle between silo and materials so as to avoid self bridge
• Wear-resisting and anticorrosion lining board of flow aid to prevent material adhesive to silo wall and avoid corrosion of materials to silo wall.
• U shape trough design of screw adopts wide angle to enlarge discharging angle of silo to prevent material arch
