Lima, February 21, 2025 The president of the International Congress of Prospectors and Explorers (proEXPLO 2025), Walter Tejada, highlighted that Peru has solid competitive advantages that should be taken advantage of. These include the fact that it is a nation with a high and underexplored geological potential, which allows geologists to set a tangible value to that opportunity.

This was announced during his keynote speech at the special Mining Thursday, organized by the Peruvian Institute of Mining Engineers (IIMP) and dedicated to the latest advances of proEXPLO 2025. In this regard, Tejada pointed out that in Peru, 53% of the exploration projects in the portfolio, valued at US$ 344 million, are assigned to projects in the greenfield stage, or in search of new deposits.

“These are projects at a very early stage of progress and have a higher technical risk. If we compare this with the world average, Peru invests more in greenfield in percentage terms. The world average is 23% as of early 2024. And my reading is that it has to do with the very high geological potential that our country has,” he said at the IIMP event.

Under this premise, he emphasized that Peru's concession system is clear, transparent, predictable and promotes formal and modern mining. He stressed that the country also has a favorable legal and regulatory framework, as well as a mining tradition that allows the formation of competitive ecosystems.

Likewise, the president of proEXPLO 2025 stated that of the 75 exploration projects that make up the portfolio, the total investment amounts to US$ 644 million. He said that 39% of these initiatives are underway and involve US$ 253 million. “This represents a growth in numbers, compared to a year ago, when we were at 22%,” he pointed out.

Tejada continued by saying that, to date, there has been a positive evolution in mining investment in recent years. At the end of 2024, exploration investment grew 28% over the previous year, representing US$ 568 million. “This is good news, we hope that this will be sustainable and maintained over time, especially considering that exploration is a long-term activity,” he said.

Challenges ahead

At another time, Walter Tejada pointed out that, although exploration activity is becoming more dynamic in the country, we have not yet recovered our historical levels of investment. He added that Peru has traditionally participated in global exploration budgets at around 6%. However, our share is currently less than 4%.

In recent years, Peru has seen a significant reduction, while other countries such as Chile and Argentina have increased their share. He added that the main challenges are the complexity of exploration permits, delays in accessing surface rights, and the fight against informal and illegal mining. Regarding exploration permits, Tejada emphasized that in Peru it takes up to 4 years to study and search for a new deposit and start drilling, while in other countries in the region the time lapse is 8 months or 1 year.