Lima,February 25, 2025. The president of proEXPLO 2025, Walter Tejada, stated that there can be no long-term, sustainable mining without exploration. This was stated during his presentation at the last special Mining Thursday (Jueves Minero), organized by the Peruvian Institute of Mining Engineers (IIMP).

The geological engineer stated that, although mining exploration is becoming more dynamic in the country, “we have not yet recovered our historical levels of investment”.

“Traditionally, Peru has participated in global exploration budgets at around 6%. Currently, our participation is less than 4%, while other countries such as Chile and Argentina have increased their participation,” he explained in the IIMP auditorium.

In this sense, he stated that the explorers' activity plays an important factor in investments in the country and in poverty reduction.

Demand for minerals

Tejada emphasized that the world needs more minerals to meet the demands of both population growth and economic growth, “a complicated context but an opportunity for Peru, as it has high geological potential”.

“It is estimated that society requires twice as much copper as was consumed in the last 30 years, four times as much nickel and twice as much steel. It is an enormous challenge and it is even greater if we take into account that we are not finding deposits in the quantity and frequency that we need to renew the resources that are being exploited,” he said.

Likewise, the president of proEXPLO 2025 pointed out that it is important to reduce the time required for the approval of procedures and permits necessary for mining exploration and exploitation in the country.

“We have to make that step easier as a country to move forward with exploration programs. From day 1 when an area of interest is identified until we bring in the drilling rig, we have to reduce this time from 4 years to something much more reasonable, in some countries it is 1 year or eight months,” he concluded.