At least three people were shot and killed, while 17 were wounded in a clash between police and highlands farmers protesting a US$7.4 billion Chinese-owned copper mining project, health officials said on Monday.
Police apparently opened fire on the protesters when they entered part of the Las Bambas mine where the plant that separates copper ore from rock is under construction.
The local health director, Jose Soplopuco, said that two men died en route to the regional capital of Cuzco and one at the local health clinic.
Photo: EPA
Percy Jeronimo, the oral surgeon running the emergency room, said three of the wounded were in critical condition.
Soplopuco said ambulances could not reach Challhuahuacho, the town of about 10,000 residents where the clinic is located, because police had shot at a vehicle carrying doctors.
The Las Bambas project is is scheduled to begin production next year and produce 400,000 tonnes of copper the following year.
Peruvian President Ollanta Humala appealed to protest leaders for calm. He called Las Bambas Peru’s biggest mining project on Monday.
Peru is the world’s third-largest copper producer and mining accounts for about 60 percent of its export earnings, but resistance by local farmers has frustrated and delayed major projects across the rugged Andean nation.
Six people have been killed so far this year in anti-mining protests, including a police officer whose skull was fractured during May protests against a Mexican-owned copper mining project.
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