Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines has approved Camino Minerals’ project to drill and explore for copper in the South American country’s Los Chapitos copper project.
The planned drilling program, which will start in September this year, will allow the Canadian company to test copper mineralization and develop drilling platforms along a 5 km radius, the miner said in a statement.
The firm did not disclose the volume of copper that may be extracted but noted that it had also received approval by the Peruvian Ministry of Health, for its COVID-19 surveillance, prevention, and control plan to restart drilling.
Los Chapitos is one of the first junior exploration projects to restart exploration activities in Peru since the onset of COVID-19 restrictions, Jay Chmelauskas, chief executive officer at Camino said in a media statement.
The project is about 620 km south-southeast of Lima, Peru, and covers about 11,800 hectares.
Peru’s mining output fell by 45.7pc in May this year driven by lower production of iron ore, copper, zinc, lead, and molybdenum due to miners halted operations for the COVID-19 pandemic.