Peru remains strongly interested in the offerings of the South African mining equipment and services sectors, as well as seeing this country as a market for its own mining and mining-related exports.

“There is a lot of new technology from South Africa,” highlights Peruvian ambassador Daúl Matute-Mejía. “My policy is to get South African exporters to Peru. And when they get there, they [will] also see what Peru has to offer and end up importing from my country as well as exporting to it.”

The South American country has, over the past 20 or so years, re-emerged as one of the world’s leading mining countries. And the sector is forecast to continue growing strongly. It has been estimated that only some 12% of Peru’s mineral resources have so far been exploited.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s last month forecast that the private sector will invest some $21-billion in mine construction in Peru during the period 2013 to 2015. This will be about half the $42-billion in private investment that the ratings agency expects the country to receive in this time. (Another major area of investment in Peru is the energy sector.) As a result, the agency increased the country’s credit rating by one level, to BBB+, ranking it above Brazil and Mexico (both BBB) and second only in Latin America to Chile (AA–).

In Latin America, Peru is now the number one producer of gold, lead, tin and zinc and the number two producer of copper and silver. In global terms, in 2011 (according to the US Geological Survey), Peru ranked second in copper and silver production, third in copper, tin and zinc, fourth in lead and molybdenum and sixth in gold. However the country’s pro- duction has continued to rise since then, and Peru overtook South Africa last year to become the world’s number five gold producer. (South Africa’s gold production in 2012, at 177.8 t, was the lowest since 1905; Peru’s gold output was 161.3 t.)

This transposition is seen in Peruvian gold exports to South Africa. “In 2011, the first year that we exported gold to South Africa, we sold more than $13-million to this country,” reports Matute-Meíja. “Peru sold South Africa $40- million in gold last year.” It is not known who, in South Africa, bought this gold. “It’s very easy to buy gold in Peru; it’s not controlled.”

In 2012, Peru also exported copper valued at $64-million to South Africa. Zinc is also exported to South Africa, but not every year – it depends on the stockpiles and production requirements of South and Southern African companies.

A number of South African mining equip-ment and services companies are already estab- lished in Peru. South African exports to the South American country in these sectors last year include (but are not limited to) elec- trical detonators for mining explosives (worth $3-million), percussion caps (worth just over $2-million), drill bits (worth more than $5.5-million) and pneumatic rock drills (worth nearly $2.9-million). Oddly enough, in return Peru exported diamond drill bits valued at $272 522 to South Africa, even though Peru is not a diamond producer (and South Africa is) and has to import the stones to make the bits.

Given the opportunities, it is not surprising that Trade and Investment South Africa, a division of the Department of Trade and Industry, has organised a South African National Pavilion at next week’s Perumin Mining Convention (which runs from September 16 to 20) in Peru’s number two city, Arequipa. The capital of the department (province) of the same name, Arequipa is Peru’s major mining centre. Some 19 South African companies will be exhibiting in the national pavilion, drawn from the capital equipment, mining and engineering services, electrotechnical/information and communications technology, built environ-ment services, construction and steel and tube sectors.