Peru sits atop some of the richest copper, gold, silver, and zinc deposits on the planet. It should be riding the greatest mining supercycle in a generation — copper prices near historic highs, demand surging for electric vehicles and data centres, and global miners desperate for new supply. Instead, the country is watching investment capital flow to its neighbours while its own projects stall, its rankings drop, and its mines slowly age.
The Fraser Institute’s 2025 Annual Survey of Mining Companies, the global industry’s most-watched confidence barometer, confirms the trajectory. Peru ranked 41st out of 68 jurisdictions in overall investment attractiveness — down from 40th in 2024, and a dramatic collapse from 34th out of 62 countries just three years earlier. In the region, it now trails Brazil, Chile, and Mexico, as well as the Argentine provinces of San Juan and Santa Cruz.
What the Fraser Survey Reveals
The details are worse than the headline number. On infrastructure quality, Peru scored negatively — the survey’s worst rating — signalling that mining executives see roads, ports, and energy access as active barriers to investment. Scores on regulatory uncertainty, environmental permitting, land disputes, and tax regime all tilted toward discouraging investment. One mining executive quoted in the report complained that even after the government approved an operating licence, the state lacked the capacity to enforce the company’s property rights over the concession zone.
Peru did recover slightly on one measure — the Policy Perception Index, where it climbed from 47th to 42nd. But on the Best Practices and Mineral Potential Index, it fell three places to 28th out of 41 countries. In plain language: investors still recognise Peru’s geological riches but increasingly doubt whether the state can deliver the conditions to exploit them.
The Illegal Mining Crisis Nobody Talks About
The Fraser numbers capture a deeper dysfunction. An estimated $7 billion in future copper projects are currently stalled because illegal miners have physically invaded formal mining concessions. Southern Copper’s Michiquillay and Los Chancas projects and First Quantum’s Haquira deposit are among those blocked. Over 50,000 small-scale miners were abruptly excluded from a government formalisation programme in late 2025, sparking blockades that paralysed operations at major mines including Las Bambas and Quellaveco.
Illegal gold mining alone is projected to generate $12 billion in exports in 2025 — a staggering figure that operates entirely outside the formal tax and regulatory system. The result is a two-tier mining economy where informal operators occupy territory faster than formal companies can obtain permits, creating a slow-motion crisis for the country’s long-term production capacity.
Argentina Is Eating Peru’s Lunch
The contrast with Argentina is stark. Under President Milei’s RIGI deregulation regime, Argentina expects $10 billion in new mining investment with six large-scale copper projects advancing. Glencore alone has filed applications worth $13.5 billion. Argentina aims to produce over one million tonnes of copper annually within a decade — from nearly zero today.
Peru, meanwhile, has not broken ground on a single major greenfield project. Copper output has flatlined for three years at roughly 2.7 million tonnes, and in 2023 the Democratic Republic of Congo overtook Peru as the world’s second-largest producer.
An Election Year With No Answers
Peru heads into general elections later this year with six presidents since 2018, a Congress consumed by short-term politics, and no consensus on mining reform. Former Energy Minister Rómulo Mucho has called for a single digital permitting window to cut through the bureaucracy, but no candidate has made it a centrepiece of their platform. Projects like Michiquillay, Río Blanco, and El Algarrobo could advance under a new government — but only if Peru decides that competing for global capital matters more than managing the status quo.
For a country that was once ranked in the top five most attractive mining destinations in the world, the fall to 41st is not just a statistical embarrassment. It is a real-time measurement of opportunities lost — capital that went to Buenos Aires and Kinshasa instead of Lima, at a moment when the world’s appetite for copper has never been greater.
This is part of The Rio Times’ daily coverage of Peru news and Latin American financial news.
For more context, read Brazil’s Morning Call and the Chile IPSA report.