Mining Introduction | Mining Companies | Leading Mines

Indeed, it has fulfilled its historic potential. Gold was being recovered from the rivers coming down from the Andes by 1000 BC and, in a series of ancient civilisations over the next 2,500 years, the goldsmiths' art was raised to an exceptional level in Pre-Columbian jewellery and ornaments. Much of the gold plundered by Spain in the early 16th century originated in Peru.

The new impetus comes not from the traditional alluvial deposits (although yields along the Rio Madre de Dios in the Amazon basin have risen), but from two major deposits that can be worked as open pits.

The champion is Yanacocha, a low grade open pit complex of only 1.15g/t (0.037 oz) that yielded 59 tonnes (1.9 million oz) in 2001 and should produce even more as surrounding orebodies are developed in new expansion set for 2002/2007. Yanacocha is operated by Newmont Mining from the US, with Buenaventura, Peru's largest mining company, as minority shareholder. It is one of the world's lowest-cost gold operations, with cash costs of $115 and total costs of $168 in 2000, and the world's largest heap leach operation.

The rival is Pierina, Barrick Gold's rich gold-silver open pit that came fully on-stream in 1999 with output of 28 tonnes (0.91 million oz) in 2001. Pierina benefits from an excellent silver bonus and relatively high grade gold at 3.7g/t (0.12 oz), giving it one of the world's lowest cash costs of $40 per ounce – although the total cost is $235.

Buenaventura, whose major shareholder is the local Benavides family, is Peru's largest publicly quoted precious metals company, operating four mines in Peru with minority interests in several others. The output of Buenaventura's mines (excluding the interest in Yanacocha) more than doubled during 2000 to reach 4 tonnes (0.13 million oz) and there was a further increase in 2001 with reported output reaching just over 6.5 tonnes (0.2 million oz). See www.buenaventura.com.pe.