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Tense demonstration in Arequipa, July 22, 2019, against the Tia Maria copper mine project. REUTERS / Diego Ramos

The Peruvian government has suspended for 120 days the license to build an open pit project in Tia Maria (south), which was to produce 120,000 tonnes of copper each year.

With our correspondent in the region, Éric Samson

For the manager of the National Company of mining, oil and energy, Pablo de la Flor, the suspension of the license to build the Tia Maria copper mine is " a negative sign that will complicate investments in the sector ."

This polemic project has been rejected for more than ten years by a good part of the local population. The tension had been rising since mid-July: the inhabitants of the province of Islay had started blocking the main roads and then a local port.

They curbed some 330 million euros worth of exports from four local copper mines. Farmers fear that the future open pit will pollute and contaminate the Tambo Valley's water supply.

Demonstrations expressing the same fears led to the deaths of six people and hundreds of injuries in 2011 and 2015.

A dilemma for the government and President Martin Vizcarra

Southern Copper, a subsidiary of Mexico's largest copper-producing company, says that the region's water resources will be protected through the use of desalinated seawater, a dedicated train line and a railway line. remote access.

But in a country where massive mining pollution, these promises have not convinced and, facing the blockage, the Minister of Energy and Mines Francisco Ismodes has preferred to suspend the building license for 120 days.

Objective: to allow a resumption of the dialogue. Today the government is embarrassed. Tía María represented an investment of 1.2 billion euros, but it is also a potential political risk.

"Politically the presidente ha dicho cuál es su posición, that el proyecto no podrá dar si es that no hay a favorable social clima.Administrativamente no se pueden adelantar los pasos, hay que seguir a procedimiento", agregó el presidente del Consejo de Ministros , @saldelsol.

Consejo de Ministros (@pcmperu) August 10, 2019

In 2015, it was the protests against this project that caused a sharp decline in the popularity of then President Ollanta Humala . In September 2015, the government declared a state of emergency in six departments in the south of the country after deadly clashes between the local population and law enforcement around the mining project.

► See also: The dead of the fight against land grabbing